Jubilee Weekend

This weekend Britain celebrates 60 years of the Queen's reign. I imagine it will be quite a public spectacle of concerts and street parties and schools events up and down the country. It really is amazing how something like this draws the whole country in. We also have an extra national holiday day on Tuesday (Monday is a traditional public holiday too), so I'm grateful for that.
The monarchy probably doesn't feature much in the everyday lives of the majority of people, who go about their busy routines of work and family life. However, the Royal Family does play an important part in the psyche of the nation - if a whole nation can have something like that. I wonder if it is because they are a family and we each see something of our own family's journey reflected in this? They are not famous for what they do necessarily (although they seem to do a lot of things), I mean they aren't entertainers or wealthy entrepreneurs and they don't have a unique talent (as far as I know). And yet despite this, they do have influence and we hold great affection for them and so do other countries, America, other English speaking countries and the Commonwealth countries to name but a few.
So, here's a toast to the last 60 years and another for the next!