Skip to main content

Current Events & Charitable Causes

I make it a point to stay up to date on current events and international affairs. It just seems like the right thing to do as a citizen of the world. That's why this next blog post is devoted to one of the most important international events in our recent history. Yes, it's all over the news but I think that we can't really devote enough attention to a subject that impacts so many people in our country (not to mention the rest of the world).  Many people have their own opinions so let's take some time to analyze the facts. 

What are we going to talk about today?

The Royal Wedding!
 
Yes, that's right. The world is facing major earthquakes, radiation fallout, wars in the Middle East, a global economic crisis, civil wars in Africa, and a host of other issues but all that seems to be important in the mass media is Kate and William's pending nuptials. 

To be fair, I love a fairy tale wedding as much as the next person and I think that William and Kate make an adorable couple. They will make beautiful babies (assuming Charles's recessive genes don't find some way to wiggle through the pool).  I am more than impressed by the poise with which William currently handles his life in the spotlight, balancing his civic duties as heir to the throne and seeming to be as "down to earth" as one can be for a royal.  

Here's the problem: the media has been talking about this for so long, I've already tuned it out. The minutiae is enough to drive you crazy:
  • Did Kate wear an "unsuitable" outfit to a weekend wedding?  note: the outfit was so modest it was ridiculous that an issue was even posited.
  • Prince William wears sneakers on a lunch date. Horror.
  • Who has been invited to the wedding? Who is not invited? What will the dress look like? Where will they honeymoon? How long before they have children? Is Kate already pregnant? Will the press crash their "stag parties"?
  • And don't even get me started on the constant comparisons to the Royal Wedding of 1981.  
After a while, it just gets a little ridiculous. Not only is every single tabloid magazine running articles devoted to the royal event but today in the grocery store I saw a whole magazine just titled Kate and devoted exclusively to the soon-to-be duchess*

*Note of trivia: Kate will not be a Princess by title and will only receive the title of Duchess if William assumes the title of Duke at the time of his marriage. She may be called Princess for ease of use but her formal title will actually be Princess William not Princess Kate.  If and when William is king, she will, however, carry the title of Queen Catherine.  Those crazy royals and their hierarchical social structure!
 
Did I mention the Lifetime Movie?  I have yet to find a television channel that isn't devoting some type of programming to the British Royals. Ok, I take that back. Animal Planet didn't seem to offer anything. But they're under the same umbrella as TLC and that channel is doing MORE than their fair share. Even The Weather Channel is in on the action.  

So how do I plan to observe this momentous event in history? Well, first of all, I probably won't watch the event live. On the day of their wedding, I will be in California preparing to support Roger as he runs his 10th marathon in Big Sur on May 1st.  He's raising money for CJSTUF as well as the Children's Hospice and Pediatric Care Coalition, an organization in California.  It's ok if I miss the live events. I have a feeling that this is one historic event that will be replayed ad nausea for weeks to come.  

I'll just find some time after the wedding to pour some tea into my souvenir mug and watch newsreel after newsreel of footage: the ceremony, the reception, the fashion, the music, the blunders, the purported honeymoon sex tapes, the pregnancy rumors. Maybe someone will just start a Will & Kate TV channel so we can watch it all 24/7.

One final thought: if you want to capture some of the spirit of The Royal Wedding and help a great cause, I have just the event for you. On Sunday, May 15th, The Hanover Arts and Activities Center is the place to be for an authentic English tea and fashion show. The theme this year is (appropriately) All Weddings Are Royal. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for children 12 and under. Seatings are at 1 PM and 4 PM and all proceeds benefit Hilliard House, a local organization that aids homeless women and children.  It's a perfect opportunity to dress up in a big floppy hat and celebrate the spirit of the wedding. For more information, contact Carolyn Peart or visit the Hilliard House website.

 
 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Edge of Seventeen

It's that time of year when the blog musings center on my grief journey. Every year, it seems like we are busy with end-of-the-year school activities and the start of summer, planning vacations, and then (kablam)...it's almost July 9.  Grief is funny. Grief is weird. I remember very early after Charlotte died, I watched the movie Rabbit Hole.  There's an amazingly poignant scene where Nicole Kidman's character is talking with another woman who lost a child over 10 years before (played by Dianne Wiest). She talks about grief being like a brick in your pocket. It never goes away. Sometimes you can even forget it's there. But it comes back and makes its presence known from time to time. And (she says) "it's what you have of them."    I probably did not fully realize then what a powerful and true analogy that is. As time goes on, our grief changes. Yet, it is always there on the edge of things. It sits in that pocket and sometimes makes itself known.  This
Post a Comment
Read more

The Stages of Grief: COVID Edition

It's 2020. It's almost Christmas. We're still in the middle of a pandemic. In fact, we are experiencing what appears to be an incredible surge that is exerting tremendous pressure on our healthcare and social service system. The headlines are clear: we're not done with this madness and December 31, 2020 will not magically be the "end of it".  Earlier in the year, our family thought about whether we might be able to travel at this time. We thought that maybe the curve would be flat enough that we could take a few days away from home during the Christmas holidays. We realized that the pandemic would still be happening, but with the right protections and with prolific mask usage, we could get a much-needed change of scenery. During what is now (clearly) a delusional thought process, we booked a stay in Gatlinburg, Tennessee for the week of December 19th. Spoiler alert: we canceled the trip almost two weeks ago.  Canceling this trip was not a tragedy. In fact, I
1 comment
Read more

Bittersweet Sixteen

I think about Charlotte every single day. However, this time of year, I'm flooded with all kinds of memories as we commemorate the anniversary of her birth. This year feels like a bit of a milestone. Sixteen.  If cancer had not taken her life back in 2010, I have a feeling I would be planning a massive birthday celebration this year. 16 always feels like a landmark year in someone's life.  I have been thinking a great deal about the last birthday party we had for Charlotte in 2009. We didn't know it at the time, but we were halfway through her treatment journey. We had been through three major brain surgeries and a few rounds of inpatient chemotherapy. Treatments were not going well. In fact, right after her birthday, we would make the trip to Houston, Texas where we would settle in for about 10 weeks of proton beam radiation treatments and a new customized chemotherapy protocol. This was the unspoken "last chance option" to beat that aggressive brain tumor into
2 comments
Read more