A stroll to the Abbey-Downton

I’ve become a little addicted (OK a LOT addicted) to Downton Abbey.  It’s been a LONG time since a television show captured my attention the way this one does.

So – I ask myself the animatingyourlife question.  Why?  There have been other shows as great that did not draw me in the way this one has.  Why has this show about upper/lower classes in 1920’s England gotten under my skin?  It’s easy to cite the obvious…the stories are intriguing, the intrigue is intriguing, and the acting…two words about the acting Maggie Smith.  If we’re strongly drawn to it it’s trying to teach us something, trying to help us grow into the people we are meant to be.   (check out my earlier post on what Jung says about this http://animatingyourlife.com/category/egghead-psych-stuff/ )

This week, as the house and the town were playing cricket I figured it out.  For me Downton is about loyalty.  Everyone in the show seems obsessed with doing their best for the greater good…or the preservation of the house.  They go about it in different ways, some of them are strong while others are not, some are good while others are not, some are self-centered and egotistical while others are not, but they all realize that they’re in it together – if Downton goes down, they’re all in trouble – so they pull together.

This may not be why anyone else watches the show, but this does it for me.  In the end, they all pull together, Bates comes to Thomas’s aid, Branson convinces Lord Grantham to work with Matthew and EVERYONE (upstairs and down) was upset at what happened to poor Sybil.

I’m going to spend a bit of time looking at my own loyalties and the people who are loyal to me; my own little pilgrimage to the abbey.  Do I exhibit the same loyalty that Daisy and Mrs. Patmore do?  Mind you, I think Daisy’s loyalty is going to be tested pretty soon…just sayin’.