The Grump ... Royal Birth; Royal Pain....

[images: public domain, 2013]

1 Samuel 8:10–11 (NKJV)

¹⁰ So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who asked him for a king. ¹¹ And he said, “This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots.  

What's the difference between a fanatical Kansas City baseball fan and a fanatical devotee of British aristocracy?

Not much!  One goes beserk over the Royals and the other goes beserk over the royals.

OK.  Bill and Kate, I am happy for you and your new baby.  Now, won't you be a couple of good chaps and just go away?

Exactly what are we to make of all the hoorah over the birth of this baby?  I like the Queen's way of dealing with it.   She noted the birth with a smile of approval and made it quite clear that it would not interfere with her vacation in Scotland.

Now if the Queen Grandmum has that healthy an attitude toward the whole shebang... and its her family and her throne that is in view... then why in the world are other, lesser mortals going so crazy?

I confess that the sheer absurdity of "fan-aticism" is a mystery to me.  I can no more imagine getting so upset at the outcome of a soccer game that I felt compelled to riot, burn cars, and break windows than I can imagine sprouting wings and flying to the moon.  Even further removed from comprehension is the mindless fascination people show toward celebrities.  Why does anyone really care what some Hollywood starlet has just recently done with some guy at a bar?  There is a very efficient way to rid the world of paparazzi nuisances... simply stop buying their photographs.  

Now at the farthest remove of all is the preoccupation with royalty.  Does anyone really remember that the entire idea of human royalty, hereditary aristocracy, was exploitation?  (see Samuel's quote above) There never was a "happily ever after" for any kingdom that depended on the wisdom and benevolence of absolute monarchs.   Unearned elitism, the basis of all aristocracy, is and always has been a fundamental fissure in the foundation of an otherwise just society.  Royalty is the ultimate expression of "them and us" where the "them" are assigned some "worth" that is entirely disassociated from achievement!

Yet... it seems almost genetic.  The romance of castles and princesses, of servants at one's beck and call, of bowing and courtly behavior... these things beckon at us from a distance.  They are, in the last analysis, a reminder that we were all created "noble" ... that what is metaphorically present in the "royal" lifestyle is actually the status for which man was created.   We see in royalty a reminder of that elevated life which we forfeited in Adam's fall.

Maybe that's why it is so doggone persistently attractive.  I find no other rational explanation.

So... I wish them well... I hope the young man finds some meaning and purpose in the circle into which he has been born.  I hope my British cousins prosper and recover some degree of that common sense which once so characterized their race.  

But in the interval... enough already.  Surely there are more important things to celebrate than this.

By the way... have I shown you photos of my newest grandchild yet?

Comments

[Gordon L.]

Beautiful new grandbaby-- congratulations! :-)

I am confused by the fanatic adulation, by Americans, over the aristocracy of England-- why waste so much adulation over the folks who reside across the pond? Particularly when we have now with Obama's, and have in the 60s with the Kennedy's, our own aristocracy!? Don't you and the rest of this country know that we have been and continue to be in the post-constitution evolution of our country, and that we relish and adore our royal family and their sovereign reign over all the land? That the royal first lady knows what's best for your children, and that our royal president sees no need for you to worry about your lives, after all he and his administration are compassionate and caring for what they think you need?

Come one-- it's just one baby, born to an otherwise young couple, and like all new parents they are going to be spending a lot of time wiping up messes, feeding and loving on their new baby-- in the greater scheme of things-- nothing particularly noteworthy-- except that the baby is their new baby-- and not royal in my way of looking on it-- as there has only been one royal baby, ever, and that was 2000 years ago.

[Gadfly]

Preach it brother.

[Douglas Smith]

An insightful note on royalty. Now how do you and I deal with the fascination of being grandfathers? Speaking for myself, I am in no hurry to stop doting.