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First, a confession: <\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve not watched the entire royal wedding. I\u2019ve seen Meghan\u2019s dress, Harry\u2019s getup, and many pictures of the family and wedding party. I\u2019ve also seen video clips here and there, as they come across my Facebook feed. So I don\u2019t have anything to say about the sermon or the vows, both of which I\u2019ve heard various opinions about.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We are full of opinions, aren\u2019t we? It\u2019s humorous that millions upon millions of people watched the Royal Wedding, yet each one of us seem to have a differing opinion. Opinions of why the dress was beautiful \u2013 or not. Opinions on whether the sermon was theologically correct \u2013 or not. We are a judgmental lot, aren\u2019t we? We like to look on and judge whether things were right or beautiful or worth our time and the Royal Family\u2019s dough. <\/span><\/p>\n It takes such bravery for a princess or duchess to stand before so many people, to be judged as we judge. I mean, clearly, not one of us knows Meghan or Harry. Nor did we know William or Kate. So mostly, we judge externals, although we have opinions about their character as well. <\/span><\/p>\n Well. Here\u2019s what I thought: <\/span><\/p>\n Meghan\u2019s first dress was lovely, if not a little bit plain. I\u2019ll go for plain over immodest and flashy any day. I thought it was a good style for her, and she wore it well. The second dress? I\u2019d never wear it. High necks and missing sleeves don\u2019t make sense to me. Why would one cover a neck but not arms? That style of dress, whatever it may be called in the professional world of fashion, to me, is odd. Unbecoming, even if the model of the dress has a perfect figure. Just my opinion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Going back a few years \u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n I thought Kate\u2019s wedding dress was to die for. Class, elegance, beauty, modesty, and all things that should become a bride on her big day was on display. In my mind, she\u2019s the picture of propriety, class, and elegance. Not just in the way she looks, but in the way she acts and interacts with people of all walks of life. I like her \u2013 from afar. As well as anyone can like anyone from afar.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Princes Harry and William? Oh, were they at the weddings? I hardly noticed. I\u2019m sure they were dashing. Harry\u2019s display of emotion at the altar was sweet. They both seem like sweet boys to me, even if they did go wild a bit after their mother\u2019s death. They\u2019ve grown to be respectable, kind men who want to carry on the best of their mother\u2019s legacy. They\u2019re notably noble. Yay. Now once the Queen passes, can we put William on the throne and skip Prince Unfaithful all together?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The bridesmaids and flower girls? <\/span><\/p>\n Oh. So sweet. Princess Charlotte is toddler perfection. My favorite picture of her on Harry and Meghan\u2019s big day was the one where she has her leg lifted up, in spite of her ruffled skirts. Sometimes a girl just has to practice her gymnastics, and if it\u2019s at a Royal Wedding, so be it. I like her sass, her flare, her individuality. I hope she never loses those qualities. Or that adorbs wave she\u2019s always giving the cameras as she walks up stairs. Walk up a few stairs, turn, smile, wave, and be gone. She knows the drill, and performs it perfectly every time. Prince George is also dashing, if a bit temperamental. He seems a bit more offish than Charlotte, and I don\u2019t blame him a bit. I hope all the Royal kids have a childhood that\u2019s as normal as possible. <\/span><\/p>\n Ha. Ha. Ha. <\/span><\/p>\n What is normal about riches and daily, grinding, non-stop expectations from the public?<\/span><\/p>\n No. They won\u2019t have a normal life. But I hope that at times, they get to ditch the cameras, play in the mud, drink from a garden hose, and poke a garter snake with a stick. <\/span><\/p>\n Why do we love to watch the Royal Family? That\u2019s been my question this last week. Not just for myself, but for all who watch and follow them throughout the year. I follow them on Facebook, even though I\u2019ve never seen or talked to them. They don\u2019t even know I, a poor (in comparison to them) commoner am alive. I mean, here I\u2019ve been writing this blog on Patheos for over a year, and for what? The Queen and her brood still don\u2019t know me from Hogan\u2019s Goat. <\/span><\/p>\n But I \u201cknow\u201d them. I probably am privy to all the information they will allow the public, and why? Well for me, I enjoy observing class. It\u2019s something America is losing with our demand for mass approval of immorality. With immorality comes bad manners. We can simply watch a gay pride parade or a pro-choice rally to know what I\u2019m talking about. There\u2019s shouting, trash throwing, spitting, cursing, and people half dressed if dressed at all, or dressed in vaginas costumes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s sickening. And along with it, I\u2019ve seen everyday manners of Americans on the decline. One only has to go buy a few things from the store to see it. Everyone is in a hurry, which results in rushing people, even if they\u2019re handicapped. Helping an old lady across the street has turned into <\/span>Get out of my way, old lady, I\u2019m in a hurry.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n This is not universal in America. No, I\u2019m not saying that. Not every American is guilty of rude and insensitive behavior. I\u2019m saying a large majority of our culture has allowed manners to slide. Dress has become frumpy and downright gross sometimes. Speech has become hurtful. Social media has fueled much of it, but if our hearts were pure and sinless, social media would only serve to spread love to one another. So we can\u2019t blame social media. The heart of the problem is always a problem of the heart, as our Pastor likes to say. <\/span><\/p>\n But take a Royal Wedding. Do we love them just because we want to tune in and judge? I can\u2019t say for sure. I only suspect that beauty, kindness, manners, and even some good old fashioned pomp and circumstance are to blame for the high television ratings. We love a good love story, sure. But a Royal Ceremony has more beauty than usual, more pomp than usual, more goodness and greatness than usual. And while the kind gestures and manners of the big day may be well thought out and highly staged, they are what they are: <\/span><\/p>\n Good. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n For when is a display of manners or a kind gesture ever bad? <\/span><\/p>\n Never. It never gets old. I\u2019ve never had my husband tell me to stop it already with the thoughtfulness, or with making our house a home by keeping it clean and as beautiful as our budget allows. As people, we adore \u2013 even crave \u2013 everything Royal Weddings put on for the world to see. Prince Harry\u2019s tearful moment seemed kind and gentle, even though I don\u2019t know the reason for the tears. Meghan\u2019s beauty and class no doubt had an effect, as little girls wondered how they can emulate her modest style and behavior. Dashing William and Harry are healthy role models for boys wanting to become men. Even the Queen shows us much: how to live in a difficult role gracefully, how to grow old and still be kind, and how to influence and direct a family without being overbearing. <\/span><\/p>\n And so on. <\/span><\/p>\n So while half of me thinks that nobody should be watching Royal Weddings, because all that money shouldn\u2019t be spent on such frivolity when, in third world countries, people are starving and could be fed with what it took to decorate the church entrance, my other half says we should have at it. Royalty should put on the display and the world should watch, so the world can see what beauty is, that modesty is still awesome and serves a purpose, and that nobility and manliness mixed with tenderness is acceptable. Not only acceptable, but highly desirable. <\/span><\/p>\n As for Americans, I guess we will continue to sit around thinking Miley Cyrus, angry women sporting vagina hats, and man buns and saggy drawers are classy. Or at least acceptable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sigh. <\/span><\/p>\n We should watch Royal Weddings to glean from their goodness. They aren\u2019t perfect weddings with perfect people. But it\u2019s difficult to deny that they consists of a few rare jewels that sparkle amidst a declining, darkening culture over here in America. <\/span><\/p>\n You may be thinking that if we all had as much money as Royalty, we could sparkle, too. I disagree. The success of Royal Weddings don\u2019t have to do with money so much as they do with class and dignity. I paid a total of eight hundred dollars for my wedding. I had just had open heart surgery, followed by a pacemaker implant six weeks prior. I wasn\u2019t up for a big shebang, nor did I have the money for a big shebang. So my Dad bought my dress for five hundred, and with the remaining three hundred, I bought a few flowers, a dress for my one bridesmaid, a tux for our one best man, a dress for our one flower girl, and we (just very close friends and family) all met out on a cliff near Telluride, Colorado to do what we wanted to do before I found out I had to have surgery asap. We said our vows on a late September afternoon, in the sunshine and crisp mountain air, in God\u2019s creation with God listening. There was very little pomp and circumstance. Very little money \u2013 but much love, respect, honor, dedication, and tenderness. So it doesn\u2019t take much money to be classy or beautiful. It just takes the right heart attitude. <\/span><\/p>\n The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart. <\/span><\/p>\n Congrats to the dashing Duke and Duchess of Sussex. May the love and respect displayed toward each other on their wedding day live and shine forever. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" First, a confession: I\u2019ve not watched the entire royal wedding. I\u2019ve seen Meghan\u2019s dress, Harry\u2019s getup, and many pictures of the family and wedding party. I\u2019ve also seen video clips here and there, as they come across my Facebook feed. So I don\u2019t have anything to say about the sermon or the vows, both of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2920,"featured_media":2045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[605,325,602,64,587,599,596,590,593],"class_list":["post-2042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-class","tag-kindness","tag-manners","tag-marriage","tag-meghan-and-harry","tag-queen-elisabeth","tag-queen-of-england","tag-royal-weddings","tag-royalty"],"yoast_head":"\n