Today was the second Royal Wedding of my lifetime, the first for Prince William and Kate, and then today early in the morning, Prince Harry married American actress Megan Markle. I've always followed the United Kingdom's Royal Family because they've been a nice parallel to my own life, with Prince Harry (I still remember when he was a kid!) just a couple years older than I am, then one of the tragedies of the 1990's, Princess Diana dying in a car accident on August 31, 1997. I remember that morning very vividly as I woke up at a sleepover at my friend's home and my friend's mother was watching TV while crying, as Princess Diana had been a hero/heroine for many women in her independent ways eventually leading to divorce from Prince Charles. That was a sad day.
I also remember the first Royal Wedding in 2011 (seems like the Royal Family is known for these grandiose occasions!) as being a huge event, one of the most spectacular events one can dream of. Seems like both today and in 2011, everyone seemed to be happy, smiling the whole time, and a joyous occasion for all. But is it all so cheery and wonderful in the Royal Family? The internet doesn't seem to think so, indicating that people in the highest places in society and with the most money can be unhappy and have chinks in their (literally, Harry was wearing what looked like) armor.
First of all, it seems so stuffy and repressed to be a prince or any member of the Royal Family. So many rules, customs, people watching. It's one thing to be known for basketball or an entertainer where you can let loose with your own creativity, a prince is always only going to be known for being the prince, really hard to imagine them topping that, and sure enough the current two princes have settled into their princely duties. They also have to avoid causing shame to the family, which Harry in particular has had difficulty doing, being captured on video/camera partying in Vegas, doing drugs, etc. I've been 21 too and made a lot of mistakes; princes apparently can't afford to without it splashing the front page.
Second of all, their wedding didn't seem that great! They basically had to have the same wedding as Prince William seven years ago, with the same chapel, same ceremony, same horse-drawn carriage taking them back to the castle.......if I were Harry I'd want my own unique wedding! Let's go to a mountain or beach or something to get married! And the whole world watching just because it's easy to get ratings. Even with all the pomp and circumstance with the Royal Wedding, I personally preferred the wedding MJ and I threw! Near the beach instead of in the city with no sign of water, a perfect California sunset on a beautiful Saturday evening instead of a dreary British cloudy morning, we played our own violin duet instead of have a full orchestra do something scripted and impersonal. And Megan's dress had to have a gang of 10 flowergirls/little dudes carrying it around? Too gaudy, in my opinion.
Third of all, much like the thinning hair in the back of Harry's head marking a physical defect in even the royal bloodlines, the Royal Family has many personality defects that they just sweep under the rug. Prince Charles and Prince Diana's conflict and infidelity leading to divorce was well publicized, Prince Harry was no saint as a child, and Megan's father didn't come to the wedding, with the official statement being that he was "too ill." Megan was in a previous marriage. These things aren't like terrible and can happen to anybody, so I guess as part of the common folk the jealousy seeps through and it makes me root against perfect people, but everything just seems too perfect with the Royal Family's ideals, get married, have beautiful children, make them prince and princesses, rinse and repeat and continue the bloodline. Life just doesn't work that way. Life is imperfect and people need to adapt to it; no one is above that. I hope that Prince Harry and Megan have a wonderful life together; just be prepared that much like everyone else, they'll have their ups and downs and part of marriage will be working through those problems and imperfections.
Here's to the Royal Couple!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
No comments:
Post a Comment