Things I admire about the British, based on Downton Abbey

Trying to get my fill before the mission







1. "I cannot say." Sometimes it is just better to shut your mouth. Aren't these characters incredible in their ability to refrain from speaking when it's not information others need to know? (The admirable characters, that is. The others can't be real Brits.)
2. Stoicism. Downplaying everything was a characteristic not always appreciated when displayed by my dad, but I like it in myself when I actually pull it off and detest its opposite in anyone. "For heaven's sake, buck up!"
3. Wit. Everything Maggie Smith says strikes me as hilarious, she has a sharp tongue but a good heart. I printed a poster that was in my office for a while (por un rato), "WWTDCD?" What would the Dowager Countess Do?
4. Never making excuses for themselves. Mary was taken advantage of, seduced, violated, shall I go on?.....by Kemal Pamuk but didn't stoop to playing the victim. Shame preferable to sniveling.
5. Calling it like it is. The give and take between Matthew's mother and "Granny," can be brutally honest, but it is honest. The British are not guilty of the crime of fake sweetness.
6. Low drama. Oh, it's there. You just see it in the upraised eyebrow, the suppressed smile, the meaningful glance. Quiet drama is so much more real than overwrought drama.
7. Honor.  It isn't just "looking good" to others. It's holding up the family name, keeping honorable that which was honorable from past generations.
8. A sense of history and knowing ones place in it. Though I side with Sybil in preferring a leveling of the classes to the system of "haves" and "have-nots," I do love their attachment to who they are and where they come from. Even Sybil's Tom has strong bonds to his place and family in Ireland.