The Royal Wedding Foolish Extravagance or Welcome Distraction?

I wonder if I am the only person who actually gets in a bad mood when I run into a television program or a post online focusing on the Royal Wedding. I took some time just now to think about what it is about this Royal Event that has me so crotchety. 

I realized that on the surface, it is just gossip to me. FOR ME Royal Business, in general, has become on par with celebrity news and I just don't enjoy the tabloids much. Blame it on Prince Charles for shattering the Royal image for me, or on the paparazzi for shattering Royal lives and robbing the world of Diana. Either way, when something comes up about the Royal Wedding, in my mind it is akin to a story about Lindsday Lohan in jail or Cameron Diaz dating A-Rod. Gross! Enough already! 

But then I realized, William and Kate are not Lindsay and Paris! How insulting. I immediately felt bad for lumping them together and for being so disrespectful. But still, I was reminded of how the details of President Bush's daughter's wedding extravagances were all over the news at a time when America's economy was plummeting. I thought it was distasteful. I wasn't a fan of George W. Bush, though, so maybe that is a bad comparison too. Maybe I had let my mind make another bad connection to the Royal Wedding. 

So I thought some more. I had removed the gossipy connotation and the President Bush association, and still – it bothered me. The world is in absolute turmoil. I can barely watch CNN right now because I am not, nor do I want to be, comfortable seeing live footage of people being shot down or dead bodies in the streets. Japan is in peril. There is so much nonsense going on in my own local Michigan news that I would be mad all the time if I didn't monitor my news exposure. Economy! Gas prices! The Environment! Dirty politics! Natural disasters! And THE ROYAL WEDDING! Pffffft. How ridiculous! 

Oh wait. The Royal Wedding is actually something good on which to focus. Something to take our minds off suffering and pain, and think about love and happiness. Whereas my thinking up to this point had been, “How out of touch are these people to flaunt such financial extravagance and happily ever afterness when their own people are suffering? While the rest of the world is in turmoil?” --- it suddenly dawned on me – what a beautiful distraction! People love weddings! It renews the spirit to see two young people join & build a new life together. Make those two people a Prince and Princess and it's like playing a tiny part in a fairy tale. And oh yeah – we are also talking about the son of Lady Diana – one of the most loved public figures in history. Lady Di was a living, breathing example of everything right in the world. She genuinely cared for people and was driven by spreading as much happiness to as many people as she could. She carried herself with such dignity and grace during her own personal trials and suffering that it reminded people that they too could persevere. I still miss Diana today and all I can think about  now is what a positive force she would be in helping the world overcome our challenges.

I actually felt my face softening and a weight being lifted off my shoulders. 

Hm. Maybe my anti-Royal thinking was the result of having unknowingly fallen into a dark place where all I could see was the negative around me. What if I had gone so far as to resent anyone for being happy and having the whole world in the palm of their hands. Yikes! I think I am over it though because suddenly  I cannot WAIT for the Royal Wedding this week! I wonder what she'll be wearing!

The Royal Wedding is getting a lot of coverage in America. How about from your neck of the woods? How do you feel about it?