3 Lessons from ✨ The Queen ✨

It’s getting royal af in the UK this weekend  (something about Elizabeth having had the same job for ages?), so I figured the most fitting newsletter for this Jubilee weekend is a round-up of life lessons from The Queen herself!

And by that I mean Queen Gemma… Obviously.

1.      Give Less Fucks.

Feel like dancing in the middle of the street on a grey Tuesday morning? Go for it!

Feel like staying in your pyjamas even though you’ve got people coming round to see you? It’s your house, who cares?

Feel like going home two thirds of the way through a Tom Jones concert because you’re tired and no longer wish to be stage-seduced by an older gentleman? Bye bitch!

The key to being a real queen is refusing to value the opinions of other people over and above your own.  There are simply no fucks royal enough to be worth carrying around – use that energy to hold up your crown and keep it moving.

2.      No Need to Apologise for Having Needs

Every person on the planet has them – some are more specific than others, more urgent or more frequent, but all of them deserve to be met.

Your needs don’t make you a burden, they just make you a person who requires certain things in order to thrive. The world we live in isn’t always great at recognising people’s needs, but that doesn’t mean you the problem, it means it’s time for the environment to adapt.

Needs are cool! If the Queen can have them, so can you!

3.      Productivity* does not measure your life’s worth

*At least not “productivity” as defined by late stage capitalism - which demands a constant output of work that is profitable to someone, somewhere.

I often think of my sister, The Queen, when my brain tries to tell me that I’m a failure for not writing more, creating more, earning more, doing more.

Who decided that our human worth has to be measured by what we contribute to society economically? Or how busy we are? Or how much stuff we can churn out?

Who’s to say that my life would be any less valuable if I chose to spend an afternoon looking up at the sky rather than at my laptop screen?

I don’t think anyone would have the right to tell The Queen that her life is worth less because she isn’t contributing to capitalism in some way.

I think it would be much more accurate to measure her life’s worth in joy – her own and what she brings to others. Or in community. Or kindness. Or cans of Coke consumed. However you look at it, there are a million better ways to measure worth than how profitable your output is. And when you forget that, feel free to think of Queen Gem.

That’s all for today! We hope you have a royally good weekend, whether you’re out celebrating or doing absolutely fuck all. You are valued, loved, and you belong.

Love,

M

💜