“I Give It A Year”

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

I’ve never said that, but I’ve sure heard it said a lot in the past few months. I’d like to think a bit more optimistically for Harry & Meghan, given that Harry’s dad was the first royal to divorce since Henry VIII over 400 years ago. There’s certainly reason for people to be skeptical, as the royal family may not be overjoyed that Prince Harry chose to bring an American actress/divorcee from a dysfunctional family into the mix. Better someone like Kate, who appears comfortable smiling, waving, and popping out babies.

My skepticism over the whole event was challenged the other night, as I announced near the top of my weekly pub quiz, “There will be no questions about the Royal Wedding this week, other than ‘Why should we give a shit?'” One regular player was not amused, and chose to interrupt me as I went on a mini-rant about it, but then I’ve been told many times, and I believe it was the point the player was hoping to impress on me at the moment, which was that I will never understand the Royals because I’m not English. This is true, and the point I never got to make addresses that very lack of understanding.

I could never understand why for thousands of years, and maybe for thousands more to come, these people who happen to be on the lucky meeting of the right sperm cell to the right ovum are awarded such special privilege and respect. Their political influence is meant to be minimal, if at all, and only in the last 50 years or so has a royal made their opinions public. Lady Di was certainly a rebel in that context, but I believe where she really made an impact was being willing to say being a future queen is not the highway to heaven it appears to be. She wanted to use her position to make a difference, and many criticised her for that, and she got even more grief for having the audacity to leave it all.

What I also don’t understand is the international interest in what really doesn’t affect that many outside the UK. Yet on the news today was hours of coverage of people coming from all over the world and camping out on the adjacent sites, and for what reason? What am I missing here? I mean, yeah, I was hoping for a little news on yet ANOTHER senseless shooting at a high school in Texas, but that news only appeared on a crawl at the bottom of the screen. Over the screen was some of the same things I saw a few years ago in the lead-up to Prince William’s marriage to Kate Middleton. People with North American or Australian accents babbling on about, “Oh I wouldn’t miss this for the world.” Except wouldn’t you get a better view if you just watched it on TV somewhere? Oh well, at least the tourism industry will thrive.

I should also go on record as saying I have no animosity to the Royals in any way. They’re surely not bad people, at least not this crop. Harry has shown a rebellious streak reminiscent of his late mom, and I kinda like that. Prince Philip has been known to say ignorant, insulting, and downright racist things at the most inopportune times over the years, and we chalk it up to him being eccentric or senile. And you gotta give Charles some credit for having been first in line for the throne for 65 freaking years and appearing totally accepting of probably having to wait several more. If he bothers at all to accept the kingship, he will be the oldest by far. These are things I find out from running pub quizzes.

Do I think the marriage will work? I shouldn’t even venture a guess, as I’ve gotten it wrong in my own life three times. They appear to be a solid couple, though if Grace Kelly is any barometer, Meghan could begin to miss show business after a few years of Princesshood. There were offers from Hollywood for Kelly during her marriage to Prince Rainier but she and/or her husband turned them down. Kelly was Princess of Monaco, a very wealthy country, but of less than a square mile in total area, so it might have been easy to be bored. Meghan will be living in England, considerably larger and more diverse. It would seem her life wouldn’t be any less exciting than the show biz life she’s already led, but you never know.

So I’ll just give a good luck and a l’chaim to them, and leave it at that.

 

May 18th, 2018



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