The Princess Di Effect

Emotion is a deep well. It rises from inside and has as its foundation, who we are, and who we are is a complex gestation slowly kindled by our personal experiences.
Watching replays of the funeral of Princess Diana one is struck by the pathos in the crowds outside the Abbey and the spontaneous applause after the speech of Lord Spencer within the Abbey.
The scene as usual, in these choreographed events,  a gathering of the great and the good inside the Cathedral. Arrayed in terms of rank and importance, sprinkled by the "outlanders", specially invited as a sop to the people (at the insistence of the Spencer family), friends from the music industry and the charities in which Diana was involved.
Protocol is always the cement that binds an event like this together but protocol was stretched to the maximum with the sight of Elton John seated at a piano singing a modified single of his about the emotionally taught Princess.
Then came the bombshell of her brothers eulogy. His words ringing clear, he criticised the press for hounding her, and, more importantly, his criticism of the Royal Family and the Establishment.
They sat and twisted in their pew until the moment, when he finished and the sound of the 'People' applauding outside the Abbey was heard by the congregation. A ringing appreciation for what he had said brought applause from those seated on the grass outside and slowly the congregation were hesitantly drawn into it and clapping within the Abbey started to accompany the folk outside.
Can you imagine having been given a slating by Spencer, (one of them or so they thought) - to then acknowledge the truth, with their own applause.
Why people were so effected by her death has been the subject of many books. The nation needed an icon but why a princess from the upper classes, why someone who was flawed by courting the publicity machine. Very beautiful and in some way very fragile, she represented the time old curtsey, women at risk have to be rescued(the gallant knight on horseback) or at least given a sympathetic hearing.  But the emotion of the crowd was something else it was contagious. It caught people in their sitting rooms who themselves began to cry for someone, something which was missing in their lives.
It was a collective grief which bound us together, the catalyst was Diana but the real grief was for ourselves in this union with our fellow man and women who for once were united without rancour.
It was a moment of humility, in and amongst humanity that touched everyone.