"To see ourselves as others see us!"

                                                                Robert Burns (1759-1796)

 What makes up a national character, a psyche, a spirit?

I am a foreigner in a foreign land though I have lived in Britain for over twenty years, have British friends, husband, and children, and can speak both the Queen's and American English.  I am accepted though not assimilated; but that's fine with me.  Being an outsider has provided me with a good vantage point from which to learn about the place where I live.  With years of observation under my belt, I have come to know something of the character of my adopted nation and in particular to appreciate the steely determination of its people.

In the UK we do not have a lot of space.  This simple fact makes British life in general somewhat burdensome.  Because this island is small and densely populated, whatever you want to do here will probably mean waiting in line, known as queuing up, in order to do it.

Years ago I learned this fact of life but what really annoyed me was that nobody else seemed to care about this inconvenience.  In fact, some people positively relished it.  I swear I once heard the words, "Oh good, there's a queue" uttered without a hint of sarcasm, when some relieved Brits saw a queue as a sign they had come to the right place.

The inevitability of queuing for absolutely everything  elicited little complaint from the Brits I observed.  Generally speaking, they seemed to embrace any inconvenience thrown at them, or at least to react with stoic acceptance.  Murmurs of "wartime spirit" or "just like in the war" could be heard.  They would get in the queue, set their jaws and...wait...for however long it took.  I did not understand what I saw as their bovine acceptance of unnecessary difficulty.  My American blood pressure would always rise.

I had come from the land where the  consumer is king and was accustomed to getting what I wanted when I wanted it.  Any comments I made indicating my annoyance would be countered by soothing "they're doing their best, Luv" remarks by those near me in the queue, making me feel duly chastened.  I was also fond of complaining to my husband, with a stamp of my dainty foot, about the natural reserve of his fellow countrymen and women.  This was not the case in a queue situation.

In a queue I found that the Brits were not only resolute but also jovial and smiling.  They would start exchanging stories with strangers, whether waiting at the post office, sitting on a delayed train,  or shuffling along in a slow advance towards distant grocery check-outs.  For many people the annual Christmas turkey queue, where the retailer handed out sherry and mince pies to pass the time, had actually become a tradition in its own right.  (I'm sure not everyone in that line walked away with a turkey.) 

In any queue of sufficient length, friendships could be formed by people who had never met before, telephone numbers exchanged, future rendezvous arranged.  With an especially convivial crowd, often involving the elderly, there was even a danger that spontaneous song could erupt.  I found to my amazement that the inconvenience, the hardship was the glue which brought these people together.

Over time (much of it spent in a queue), I have come to understand the importance of the British determination to "get on with it" and the role it plays in the national psyche.  I think this ability to see things through to the bitter end, to endure or even to embrace life's difficulties, as illustrated by their queuing skills, lies at the root of the steely British resolve that helped them stand up to Hitler.  This resolve is the peacetime guise of the spirit of the Blitz, which sustained people in their nightly struggles against German bombardment during the Battle of Britain. 

I suppose the Brits could not have beaten the Nazis if the US had not entered WWII but it was their own steely determination that kept the civilian population from going under long before we got there.  From what I have seen of my host nation, they may eventually have been overrun but they would never have surrendered.

Some might say that endurance and steely determination, though virtuous, will not propel the UK into recovering its status as a dominant world power anytime soon.  Those days are long gone.  True, but as to empire building, they've been there, done that, and thought better of it, relegating their world domination to the history of an imperialistic past.

So, although I have not overcome my natural impatience and sometimes I need to complain, I also say bravo to the Brits and their mettle.  Here's to having the steel to endure and to the spirit that we're all in this together. 

© Julia Barr 2010

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