Ten Years Later

It was 10 years ago, and I was struck by life's irony. A wonderful woman passed away. She gave her heart and soul to the poor and the diseased. She wanted nothing more than to help people. Then she was taken from us and...nobody noticed.

Her name was Mother Teresa. The nun of Calcutta had enough humility to recognize God's sense of humour: Princess Diana died only six days before. The headlines remained in England.

People wept and prayed over a woman who did her best to live the high life, destroy the reputations of her benefactors, and ski the slopes of wintry paradise. In between visits to Monaco and Paris, she would visit pristine hospitals to shake the hands of AIDS patients. The shutters would click, the bulbs would flash, and there she was: the Princess. And people would swoon.

When you have beauty, you do not need humility. You can go on television and in one breath discuss your infidelity and your eating disorders without shame. Sunlight is not the great cleanser. Television is. If you tell your neighbours that you cheated on your husband by banging the riding instructor (I'll say) and that you barfed after every breakfast, they'll call you a headcase. Tell it to the world on TV, and they call you "poor thing."

No one noticed the passing of Mother Teresa, and in a way I always liked that. She wouldn't have wanted the headlines, unless they came with a donation for her Missionaries of Charity. She had no crown jewels, and would have hawked them for food if she did.

10 years on, the news coverage still makes me laugh. A few days ago, a number of papers ran a story about how Teresa questioned her faith in God towards the end of her life. That's a great hit job on a devoted Christian, and a wonderful way to celebrate her life, isn't it? Diana, however, gets the tears, the flowers, and the orgasmic excitement of a nation in mourning. Fire up the TV. Replay the Elton John tune. Edit the video and photo montages. Set them to music, with soft focus and dissolve transitions. Nothing's too good for the Princess.

The differences in their deaths could not be more striking. One with malaria and heart failure, the other in a millionaire's limo. Guess which one gets the full blown Larry King treatment?