It’s 5:06 am and I, a red-blooded American male, am watching the lead up to the Royal Wedding. Ok, guys feel free to laugh. I don’t care, I’ll wait.
Done? Ok, good.
Here’s why this is so appealing, and why even if you don’t watch it yourself, you should in some small way care. Now, just so y’all know I have no desire for us to be under any sort of monarchy, and I no, I don’t wish we were part of the UK or the Commonwealth. But I do have a deep affection for British culture, the land and the people.
Which brings me to this, for good or for bad the British Crown is a very deep part of the character of the UK and then by extension the English-speaking world. In a very real way everything that we know about politics, government, religion and society has been inexorably shaped by the Monarchy.
So why do I think this wedding matters?
Mankind needs traditions, we need an anchor in a sea of change. In a world and time where everything changes around us so quickly there seems there is nothing to hold on to. In my day to day life the most change averse institution I have is the church, specifically the Southern Baptist Church. I don’t think I need to explain the differences in the ritual and services from the Baptist church of my youth and the one I go to today. I’m sure all of us have analogous institutions or organizations in our lives.
Traditions and institutions like the royal family and all of the pomp and circumstance that surrounds them give the British an anchor, a firm center of society and culture.
The closest our country will see to an event like this is inauguration (maybe, not near the sentimentality around it) or a full state funeral for a President (think Reagan or Kennedy). The fact that we don’t have these events is very much an extension of our revolt against this same Monarchy. We have no titles or honors that approach the British system of peerage and honors, even our “aristocracy” of celebrities is very, very pedestrian and lowbrow. I often wonder if we seek to knock them down as we do in order to keep them from ever feeling as if they are a class above.
So I say we watch these two get married, raise our mugs of tea and toast them with prayers and blessings.
