May 19, 2018: It’s a rainy Saturday in Ottawa. As I complete several errands, my thoughts aren’t where they should be: on dodging parking-lot puddles. I’m not thinking about the Latest Royal Wedding, either, or how it will compare and contrast with the Previous One. Instead, I’m thinking about a rainy Saturday in Edmonton: May 19, 1945, my parents’ wedding day.
Wedding-wise, I expect today will always be remembered for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle rather than for my parents, even though they lived together successfully and happily for 65 years.
Even celebrity-wise, it’s been a bit much. The Estranged Half-Brother. The Mysterious Father. The Who-Would-Give-Her-Away Dilemma. The Canadian Munchkins in the Wedding Party. The People Camped Out in the Streets to Catch a Glimpse. The Dress. The Tiara. The Non-Fruitcake Wedding Cake.
The media coverage has been all Harry & Meghan, all the time. You’d never know that another 74,998 people (give or take) managed to get married today, somehow, somewhere in the world, with nary a tiara in sight.
I wish Harry and Meghan well. I wish the other 74,998 people (give or take) well, too. To commit to someone else and to commit jointly to the future is worth celebrating, whenever and wherever it occurs.
Well said, Isabel.
Tom
Tom – Thanks kindly.
Like Tom, well said. But the linguist in me keeps wanting to play with words, With pronouns, actually. When two become one, what happens to the two? You and I are subsumed in we. You has already replaced what used to be he or she; which became the more intimate you and I, chichis now we. Where is I when I is we?
In a world of universal kinship of all life, is there a they at all?
Jim T
Jim T – Thanks! As for whether there’s a they, I find that although I know we’re all made of the same matter, I don’t carry this thought around with me. Should.
The spectacle of the royal wedding was a symphony of ironies, contrasts, contradictions, incongruities, anachronisms, good intentions, posturing, and performance. The lovely picture of your parents is a refreshing contrast to all of that.
If the new Duke and Duchess have high hopes of changing “this old world,” in Bishop Curry’s curious phrase, and if Diana’s ring on Meghan’s hand is a token of their hopes, they will need an army of angels to assist and protect them.
Laurna – 🙂 Spectacle — le mot juste, indeed. As for the kids’ needs, we might all wish for an army of assisting angels . . .
A lovely tribute to your parents, who were known to me personally, unlike all the others. Special indeed!
Judith – Thank you. It is a bit funny, though isn’t it – that we don’t know anyone else with the same anniversary. Adding it up, year after year, there are quite a number of them, especially since weddings in Canada tend to cluster in the summer months.