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Well,
I don't know about the rest of you but I'm weddinged out. There hasn't been this
much media coverage of an event since Lindsay Lohan's last arrest. Nothing wrong
with the Royal Wedding's bride or groom, and nothing wrong with the opulent setting
of Westminster Abbey, though I'm resisting the temptation to criticize some of
those hats that looked like the women's heads had exploded in spaghetti, bowling
balls and a few birds.
Questions were raised by my kids who viewed the
event and thought there would be "at least 100 other people watching this, right
mom?"
Questions from our kids can drive a mom insane because it's humiliating
to have to say "I don't know dear," when moms are supposed to know everything.
It's no longer enough for them to know we really do have eyes in the back of our
head, now they want answers, too.
"Mom, what's a troth?" I thought it
was a lazy troll (troll + sloth = troth.) My daughter had to wait another full
day before I had time to find out that when we pledge our troth, we are pledging
fidelity. Seems like overkill to me, since they had already pledged to "forsake
all others" and keep one another "only unto him/her." Poetic and lovely, but redundant.
Not wishing to editorialize, I just told her "fidelity" and to look it up. |
The kicker question
which required research was "What's that square in the floor that everybody is
walking around?" I wanted to know that as well and learned that it is the burial
place of The Unknown Warrior from World War I. In that hallowed spot upon which
not even kings and queens may trod, lies an unidentified British soldier killed
on the battlefield during World War 1.
He was buried in Westminster Abbey on November 11, 1920. There are many graves
on the Abbey floors, including Chaucer, Dickens, Austen, both Bronte sisters,
Kipling and, well, you get the point, but The Unknown Warrior's is the only grave
which is forbidden to step on.
Thanks to the Internet, I was able to answer
the questions of my curious kids, all questions except one. We just cannot figure
out why everybody calls the bride Kate with a K when her full first name of Catherine
is spelled with a C.
© Maggie
Van Ostrand
"A Balloon In Cactus"
May 2, 2011
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