Over the last 24 hours, I have made a bit of a turnaround. Although I suspect the whole experience of watching the coronation may be extremely bittersweet, at best, I think I will join much of the rest of the world and get up well before the crack of dawn tomorrow and turn on the television. If there's even a remote possibility that I'll get back to Britain for any period of time in the future, I feel I need to experience this historic transition the way most people in that country will do. I want to feel the feelings that come up, for the choral music, for Westminster Abbey's remarkable space, for the words of the service, for the institutions of monarchy and church, the attire, the whole thing. I want to try to sort out what elicits powerful positive feelings, and what elicits negative ones, and not throw out the whole experience willy-nilly because I fear the pain of homesickness.
It will be a good Saturday for doing this, given that we are expecting cool, rainy wind-off-the-lake weather. The trees haven't yet broken out in green, but they are trying to get up a little momentum. I feel quite unsettled, on so many levels, but it does help to look out the window at the immense lake and its solid horizon line. From a distance, no matter how calm or distressed the water, that line between sky and lake stays the same.
Yes, next week I'll report in! Your correspondent in Duluth...
