Celebrate Lord Westover’s 10 year anniversary by being Noble!
By Robert Hudson Westover
Ten years ago this summer a noble star was born and His name is Lord
Westover. His mission in life is to bring awareness that everyone has a
noble star burning within us—even if we can’t see or feel it.
This idea of a noble super hero was birthed one day when I was about to
jump out of my car to “engage” with a jerk who had nearly caused an accident
by a very selfish act of stealing a parking space. I really wanted to give
him a piece of my mind—in the tradition of being a Marine—but my ever wise
husband, Tom, calmed me down immediately by saying “That guy's a jerk, but
you need to calm down. You need to be a guardian of civilization not
contribute to its unwinding.”
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| His Grace, Lord Westover. Obviously. |
Tom’s prophetic words stopped me in my tracks. Instead of potentially a
loud verbal (or even physical confrontation) I simply said (a little loudly,
admittedly) as I passed by the jerk-behaving person, “You almost caused an
accident. It was really thoughtless of you.” I don’t know if he responded
because we just drove on and I didn’t look back literally and
figuratively.
Now, with just that one admonition from Tom my mind went into PR mode and
that day I developed the idea of a “guardian of civilization” hence
forth to be known as Lord Westover.
A few weeks later, sitting in my car at a traffic light in front of
Washington D.C.’s massive Union Station, I read a quote inscribed into the
granite exterior of the train station by James Russell Lowell. It reads “Be
noble! and the nobleness that lies in other men, sleeping but never dead,
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.”
Thus was created Lord Westover’s manifesto of sorts or what His Grace
titled the Nobility Oath. With this mission statement Lord Westover ventured
out of his “vast estate” and began asking the world to take the Nobility
Oath.
And many have…
So reflecting on over ten years of noble ambition and public awareness it
thrills me to see my creation, Lord Westover, (or LW, as I call him, which
does not please His Lordship one bit) reaching tens of thousands of, as LW
would say, “Trogs” all over the world.
Large national news media outlets including the Washington Post and the
Christian Science Monitor have covered Lord Westover’s
adventures. In fact, over 500,000 people have visited one or all of Lord Westover’s
social media venues created to get out His Lordship’s message of the inner
nobility in all of us.
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Lord Westover's Best Selling "Royal"
instruction manual. |
I chose to developed Lord Westover as a comedic performance art character
simply because I feel humor can be one of the most profound ways to
enlighten others. And along the way a “royal court” has developed with
characters such as Manservant to His Grace, the Mysterious Lady K and the
Earl of Fulton to help in spreading the Noble word.
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Members of Lord Westover's court sharing the Nobility Oath with as many "Trogs" as possible. (From left to right the Earl of Fulton, the Mysterious Lady K and Lord Westover). |
Over the years I have built a small non-profit multi-media entertainment
group called Lord Westover Productions which includes
videos,
books, blogs and other forms of multi-media entertainment.
Lord Westover Productions' impromptu performance art shows have taken place
at large national events including on The National Mall in Washington, DC as
well as in other countries including Turkey, Australia and the United
Kingdom. Lord Westover has even made appearances with Smokey Bear and sang
to him on the fire prevention bear’s 75th Birthday!
At one point a Hollywood production company asked us to film a mini-pilot
or “sizzle reel” for a possible reality show! That sizzle fizzled, but it’s
sure a lot of fun to watch! (And you still can by clicking
here!) I’m proud to say that I think it will go down in history as one of the
worst sizzle reels--ever. No easy accomplishment for LW’s theater
company!
One of the crowning moments of knowing your message is getting out there is
to see that messaging being copied by large influencers. One day a friend
sent me a picture of an ad in a DC metro station. It was for Gillette razors
and was called "The Reformed Troglodyte". It was so obviously a Lord
Westover-type message that I had to contact the producer of the commercial.
And he confirmed, that yes, indeed, Lord Westover had inspired the Reformed
Troglodyte ad campaign!
So over the years His Grace, LW, has converted a lot of folks to reform
from being short sighted narrow minded trogs to being Noble and seeing the
Nobility in all of us. But His Lordship's Nobility campaign is far from
over. In fact, it is more important than ever. By truly seeing Nobility in EVERYONE we can move to understand, forgive and
trust one another.
In my humble opinion, there is no other way to save civilization.
JUST BE NOBLE.
