Liberal Arts Blog — Royal Guards (Buckingham Palace), Honor Guard (Tomb of Unknown Soldier), Swiss Guards (Vatican)
Liberal Arts Blog — Monday is the Joy of Math, Statistics, Shapes, and Numbers Day
Today’s Topic: Royal Guards (Buckingham Palace), Honor Guard (Tomb of Unknown Soldier), Swiss Guards (Vatican)
Have you ever wondered how long a Buckingham Palace guard maintains his position without moving? Have you ever timed it yourself? How about a Swiss Guard at the Vatican? the Honor Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?
How long do you think the average human can maintain the same standing, sitting, or kneeling posture without fainting? In medical terms, this is called orthostatic or postural syncope. And depending on age, hydration, medications, and underlying health conditions can occur in seconds or minutes.
This is perhaps one of the reasons that when I ask physical therapists with 20 plus years of experience what their number one piece of advice is, the most frequent answer is “keep moving.”
Today, somewhat randomly, a few notes on the Royal Guards, the Honor Guard, and the Swiss Guards.
Have you been delighted to learn any random math lately?
Experts, please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
THE ROYAL GUARDS AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE — 2 hour shifts, every 10 minutes they “salute by coming to attention, slinging their arms, marching 15 paces, and then returning to their post.”
1. The changing of the guard ceremony lasts about 45 minutes and occurs every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday at 10:45am.
2. The “funny hats” are called “bearskin hats” and are 18 inches high and weigh about 1.5 pounds.
3. The straps are not under the chin — they are under the nose or between the lower lip and the chin.
NB: The angle of the feet is a sixty degree angle “at ease” before coming to attention. When at attention the heels are together and the feet are turned outward at a 45-degree angle.
“The King’s Guard are sentry postings at Buckingham Palace and St. James’s Palace, organized by the British Army’s Household Division also mounts sentry postings at Horse Guards, known as the King’s Life Guard.” Other postings are at the Tower of London and Windsor Castle.
HONOR GUARD — TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER — Arlington National Cemetery., The Sentinel “walks the mat”
1. Marches 21 steps south down the 63-foot-long (19 m) black mat laid across the Tomb. Turns and faces east, toward the Tomb, for 21 seconds.
2. Turns and faces north, changes weapon to the outside shoulder, and waits 21 seconds.
3. Marches 21 steps up the mat. Turns and faces east for 21 seconds. Turns and faces south, changes weapon to the outside shoulder, and waits 21 seconds.
NB: “Repeats the routine until the soldier is relieved of duty at the Changing of the Guard.”
“Twenty-one was chosen because it symbolizes the highest military honor that can be bestowed — the 21-gun salute.”
SWISS GUARDS (Vatican City) — protecting the Pope since 1506 under Pope Julius II (1443–1513)
1. Guards are “Swiss Catholic males between the ages of 18 and 30.
2. Must be at least 5 feet 8 and a half inches high (1.74 meters).
3. Must have completed basic training with the Swiss Armed Forces and hold a professional diploma or high school degree.”
NB: “As of 2024 there were 135 members.” Sometimes called “the world’s smallest army.”
In his work, “Julius Excluded from Heaven,” (1514) the Dutch humanist Erasmus satirizes the drunken Pope Julius who is “denied entry to heaven by St. Peter, justifies his worldly life and plots to create a rival abode from which to conquer heaven.”
CONCLUSION
1. Do you have a favorite uniform?
2. Favorite hat?
3. Happy Patriots’ Day!
NB: Patriots’ Day is a legal holiday in 7 states (Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, Florida, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Tennessee). Interestingly, not in Rhode Island, Vermont, or New Hampshire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Guard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_the_Unknown_Soldier_(Arlington_National_Cemetery)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Guard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearskin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Julius_II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Excluded_from_Heaven
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriots%27_Day
QUOTE OF THE MONTH — Have you made your own Bible yet?
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
Last four years of posts organized thematically:
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned this week related to math, statistics, or numbers in general.
Or, even better, the coolest or most important thing you learned in your life related to math.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. And to consolidate in your memory something you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
