Having a cuppa...maybe not her cup of tea!

 

 

I suspect Margaret Thatcher was not talking about 'the curtains' or 'what Sally said' in this image!  

   

Having a cuppa for me means having a relax and a chinwag... I'm like that.

 

However, I felt drawn to take a peek at this woman's life, her strengths and to  catch a glimpse of the challenges that she lived through. Now I am not suggesting you are only strong if you are involved in politics. We all have our strengths and yet so many of us fail to recognise ours or downplay them. Playing small does not help us. Margaret Thatcher certainly didn't downplay hers.

 

Today I invite you to reflect on your strengths as you read, and consider the values and convictions that you hold dear. You may even see some similarities. Above all, she was still a woman.. with thoughts, feelings and emotions. 

 

Margaret Thatcher was a remarkable woman and a figure of awe...one who evoked the strongest feelings and emotions in people, communities and countries.  Love her or hate her...she portrays confidence, strength and power. As a woman...and as a lady.

 

 

Nicknamed the Iron Lady, she was known for her strong will and resolute devotion to conservative politics. There was no middle of the road for her, 'that's where you get run over by both sides' she said. . Now this is not a political viewpoint by me, I am simply fascinated by the character of this strong confident woman. 

 

 

From what I have read she was not quite the immovable object she was portrayed as...but rather she was a woman of reason...if you had the courage and wit to challenge her will.

I’m only as strong as the hairspray I use, the amount of alcohol in my drink, and the friendships I have!” Could this have been her mantra?
In other words, look the part and present brilliantly... indulge in a fortifying glass of whiskey...it gives you energy and top it up with a Vitamin B shot (that's what I read she liked). 

Were there chatty, girlie friendships?...I don't think so!  Friendships of meaning would have been more her forte, her closest friend being listed as her husband Denis. Mr Google tells me she had few close personal friends.

Her death stirred up intense feelings and emotions... maybe that is easy for me to say as I did not live in England while she was in office and the rights and wrongs of her decisions will be debated forever.

Have we forgotten what an amazing achievement her career was, how she had to fight sex and class discrimination?" 

After her death Meryl Streep who portrayed the former PM in the movie  'The Iron Lady', paid tribute to her 'grit' and model as a female leader. Margaret  has been a pioneer – "willingly or unwillingly" – for the role of women in politics, allowing females from across the globe to dare to dream of leadership. To have come up, legitimately, through the ranks of the British political system, class-bound and gender-phobic as it was, in the time that she did and the way that she did, was a formidable achievement."

To have won it, not because she inherited position as the daughter of a great man, or the widow of an important man, but by dint of her own striving.

To have withstood the special hatred and ridicule – without corruption – I see that as evidence of some kind of greatness, worthy for the argument of history to settle. To have given women and girls around the world reason to supplant fantasies of being princesses with a different dream: the real-life option of leading their nation; this was groundbreaking and admirable.

 

I was honoured to try to imagine her late life journey, after power; but I have only a glancing understanding of what her many struggles were, and how she managed to sail through to the other side.

 



How tragic that a woman of her calibre finished her life with dementia.
Finally she appears here to be contemplating life...with a hint of a smile...I would like to think she was thinking I've had my cuppa...let's celebrate with a whiskey and soda.

Farewell to one amazing woman!