Good for Them

My father used to quip that the most effective government was a  benign dictator and as a musicologist by training (music historian) it was pretty clear that the more gentle side of human nature did very well when the head guy was also a good fellow along with being a good ruler.

England won't ever have a King like Henry VIII or a Monarch like Elizabeth R and in the trickle down theory of government/rulers that's a Martha Stewart "Good Thing".  But for the time being it does have a Kate and William in line to the throne - symbolic as it is.

Frankly, I think that it is a good thing on any number of levels and I wish we had some of it here.  I wish that Jefferson or Adams were of a family that was still a bastion of American government.  Of course we would have to suffer through the genetic numb skulls and the flitty idiots but we would know or hope that one of first Born's would pop out as a Jeffersonian incarnate and, with no power at all other than heritage, he/she would be a sage for our times - someone with continuity and a true sense of lineage that goes back farther than the daily weather.

William and Katherine seem like very decent people - just folks you might meet at Waldbaums on your Saturday morning grocery shopping...looking like any young couple/newlyweds trying to make a life in difficult times.  That they have a Henry or an Elizabeth R in their family album makes them more interesting even if NOT special. 

Anyway, I wish them well as I would any young couple. They will have their issues I'm sure and as they grow old they will grow distant in some respects and on some days and for some minutes and each will look at the other with the "what the heck was I thinking" glance but in the end and for every other moment they will look at each other with that unconditional support and trust and love like they did the other day and if the Monarchy is reduced to a symbol this is a good one for all of us to remember and aspire to. 

Good for them.