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Queen Victoria presided over Great Britain from age 18 to 81 (1837-1901). Much like the Queen of the century before her, Queen Elizabeth II dominated the 1900s (1952 to 2022).
Both literally lived like queens.
They sat on the same thrown and bore the same crown.
What was different about their time as English queens, however, was their access to things like proper sanitation systems, central heating, air conditioning, electricity, and non-equid transportation.
In fact, Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert made it one of his many projects during his time to improve the castle’s waste management system. Instead of human waste just dropping into a cesspool below the basement floor (where the kitchen was located, eww), waste would be more appropriately directed.
Compare for a moment your home’s sewage system to the one that operated in young Queen Victoria’s home.
Feeling pretty fancy now?
Consider also that she gave birth to 9 children with no option for anesthesia, Cesarean delivery, or even antibiotics. In fact, she was terrified when pregnant with her first child, childbirth being so incredibly dangerous in her time – not to mention the power she risked losing to others, namely men, in her periods of “confinement.”
I’m talking about royalty here because whenever I’m feeling frustrated over my dingy kitchen floor, scratched stair railing, tired patio furniture, or any other material comfort in my life, I remember that I live with a better basic standard of living than even a queen less than 200 years ago.
I can read at night with a handy electric clip light. When I wake up, my room isn’t freezing until the fires get going. I can drive in my car to wherever I’m needed without first coordinating the grooms, livery, and horses. I can even travel by airplane to far flung locales in a matter of hours.
Even more, I have a machine that washes the daily dishes and another set that easily handles washing and drying the laundry without my constant oversight. I can coordinate my army instantly by text; no need for letters and overnight horsemen.
Life will always be far from perfect, no matter the century.
However, remembering that in many ways we live better than recent royalty is a nice check against our ever-ambitious drive for a higher standard of living.
Because it’s that endless pursuit of more, better, nicer that demands so much of our money, when perhaps the more important privileges we’d prefer, like control over more of our time and work, would be more in our power if we were accepting of (or, dare I say, appreciative of) fewer material comforts and simpler living circumstances.
It’s a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack.
Germany Kent
The world may change around me, but my principles remain unyielding.
Queen Victoria
I hope you enjoyed this edition of Under 2, an email series designed to share quick bites of wisdom to empower your financial journey (while keeping it short). Be sure to sign-up below to get these messages in your inbox.
All for now,
Lindsey