The Duke and Duchess of Sussex

“Royals FURIOUS with Meghan!”


As of this writing, I have not watched the wedding of Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle, now the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

It’s not that I don’t care, as many seem to feel, though at least 29 million Americans tuned in to watch. (Here’s some music to celebrate by.)

I’ve actually recorded the nuptials but haven’t watched them. I was away at a work conference for most of the following week. (My household is not a zeitgeisty group, as my wife is able to watch Dancing with the Stars, Olympic figure skating, et al. days or even weeks after the broadcast.)

I’m particularly interested in hearing the sermon by bishop Michael Curry, which was so good that it made the prayer list at my church the next day.

While I’m more sympathetic to rants against the archaic, and expensive, nature of the monarchy, the notion that we SHOULDN’T care about royals falls on deaf ears.

For one thing, it violates Arthur’s Law, which, everyone knows, is: “Everything you love, someone else hates; everything you hate, someone else loves. So, relax and like what you like and forget about everyone else.” Arthur himself has a nuanced view of the festivities.

I was absolutely fascinated, BTW, by these ads, sometimes on legitimate news sources, that read, “Royals FURIOUS with Meghan!” These were so clearly clickbait that I simply couldn’t be bothered.

The run-up to wedding was fodder for something called Elite Daily. Most of it I could care less about: which Kardashian is pregnant, and by whom; which TV or movie star who I’ve barely heard of is having an Instagram war with a person I’ve never heard of.

Why do skim the emails then? Because, as a business librarian, I’ve come to realize that some YouTube star I’m unfamiliar with, who’s undoubtedly making more money than we are, has entrepreneurial savvy that may be applicable to others.

While I’m thinking about it, I’ve really tired of articles with headlines such as “Here’s the tweet that absolutely DESTROYED [fill in the name of some politician you hate]!” Very few people are “destroyed” on social media.

Well, maybe lawyer Aaron Schlossberg. We’ll have to see.

H is for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

Yeah, I know the whole system is all rather archaic,

I’m not much of a monarchist, though I take passing notice of the activities of Prince Harry and Prince William of England, they being, roughly, my wife’s 20th cousin once removed, or something like that. Lady Diana Spencer, about whom a musical is planned (!), and my spouse had a common ancestor in the middle of the 14th century. Really.

The fact that Harry was going to marry an American actress named Meghan Markle who I, frankly, was not familiar with, really didn’t interest me that much. I have never seen or heard of the TV series Suits.

That is until the racial backlash began. Meghan’s mother, Doria Radlan, is African-American, and her father, Thomas Markle, is Dutch-Irish. She was raised by her mother when her parents were divorced when she was six, raised by her mother and often estranged from her father.

Meghan describes herself as “a strong, confident mixed-race woman.” after growing up enduring racial abuse because her mom’s skin tone wasn’t the same as hers. “While my mixed heritage may have created a grey area surrounding my self-identification, keeping me with a foot on both sides of the fence, I have come to embrace that.”

I wonder if such a match with Harry were possible if he were closer to the throne. With not only his father Charles and his brother William, but now nephew George, niece Charlotte and William and Kate’s new baby in line, Harry can be less restricted, I would think. Not that QEII would have cared, but would the United Kingdom accept a divorced, mixed race mother of the future king or queen?

Yeah, I know the whole system is all rather archaic. At the same time, it has allowed for a bit of measuring of societal change over time and that intrigues me.

Incidentally, despite the close relationship my wife has with Harry, we have NOT been invited to the wedding. I suspect the invitation got lost in the overseas mail, alas. We’ll have to watch it on the telly on May 19 like the rest of the commoners.

For ABC Wednesday

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