I had hoped to post here one of the musical pieces from Friday's royal wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank; but alas, I cannot seem to find any of them on YouTube. So by way of substitution, here is a jolly piece often played by my late husband at weddings, from Handel's oratorio Solomon (1748), as performed by renowned British musical group The Sixteen.
Yesterday's royal wedding address was given by the Most Reverend Michael Curry, since 2015 the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States. It was most amusing to note the suppressed smiles on many British faces as the PB launched into his usual rollicking, gospel-style delivery, something I'm sure is rarely heard in the Church of England - and is unusual in the Episcopal Church, too, for that matter.
The address was followed by a stirring rendition of the Ben E. King classic, performed by the Kingdom Choir from southeast England:
Your Head Trucker has paid no attention to the royal wedding preparations and speculations these last six months - I've had other things on my mind - but for the record, here are a few snapshots.
It's not every American girl who grows up to be a real princess, but this one did, and how:
The Queen was in good form with a chartreuse coat and hat, one of her favorite colors, I'm told, and a magnificent diamond brooch that would choke a horse:
Well, that's all the snaps I took before I ran out of film. But in case anyone missed the festivities, the whole thing - without a single babbling word of commentary - can be seen at the official Royal Family channel:
The Order of Service can be downloaded from the British Monarchy website here.
Unlike the unfortunate case of the Duchess of Windsor (who, I believe, had no real idea of what she was getting into) it seems that neither the Queen, the Church of England, nor the British public have any objections to HRH marrying a divorced American this time around. Well, times change and attitudes change: the fact that the bride's ancestry is half African-American seems likewise to have caused not a ripple of discomfort anywhere, except among the usual trolls and hobgoblins of the Internet.
I had wondered if Harry ever would marry - it's hard enough for an ordinary bloke to find a compatible mate without the pestilential reporters and paparazzi posting every little sneeze and stumble on the front pages, which must be utterly hellacious to those in the goldfish bowl of public life. But judging by the BBC interview below, it appears that Harry has made a very good choice: Ms. Markle seems poised, sensible, and grounded, very much in love but clear-eyed about her new status.
So they look to be in good starting position, and I hope they will surmount the hedges and hurdles of life well and wisely. All good wishes to the happy couple.
Of course I watched. I saw his parents' wedding, so I wanted to see Diana's boy married off too. And it was all very simple, almost low-key as these things go - but very lovely. Of course, I smiled and laughed and wept; Diana would have been so proud.
Long life and much happiness to them.
God save the Queen.
P. S. - Who knew Kate had a brother? And James is quite a looker himself:
Prince William and his fiancee, Kate Middleton, have released their official engagement portraits, one formal and one casual, shown above. Very sweet. William looks so much like his mother. I notice that already he has dark circles around his eyes, not sure why. But his body language is plain to read: very much in love, and very protective of his lady. I hope she's up to the job - and it is a job she is marrying, not merely a man.
The couple will wed on April 29th next year, and although the venue hasn't yet been announced, everybody in Britain seems pretty sure it will be in Westminster Abbey. Good luck to them.
A statement this morning from Clarence House said:
The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince William to Miss Catherine Middleton.
The wedding will take place in the Spring or Summer of 2011, in London. Further details about the wedding day will be announced in due course.
Prince William and Miss Middleton became engaged in October during a private holiday in Kenya.
Prince William has informed The Queen and other close members of his family. Prince William has also sought the permission of Miss Middleton's father.
Following the marriage, the couple will live in north Wales, where Prince William will continue to serve with the Royal Air Force.
What I Say: It brought a tear to your Head Trucker's eye to see Diana's engagement ring on Kate's finger. It was very, very touching to hear William say he wanted to put that ring on Kate's hand so that his mother could in some sense be present to share in their joy. I well recall getting up at 4:30 in the morning to watch, over pastry and a steaming pot of tea, the live coverage of Diana's wedding, which outwardly was just perfection: all the joy and pageantry and splendid celebration that anyone could wish.
And yet as we now know, even then the trouble had already begun. By strange coincidence, I spent this past weekend looking - for no particular reason - at videos of Diana, and for the first time watched the famous Panorama interview she gave. I also read Google views of several books about her, including the Morton book based on her own tape recordings. At this late age, I see and understand much more about the nature of things than I could have when all that was happening.
All of which is very, very sad. I was, in my romantic youth, very fond of the Princess of Wales; and it was very troubling when the fairy tale all crashed into pieces, which happened to coincide with the shattered hopes my first husband and I had. All too hard to bear; so after that I didn't keep up much with what Diana was doing, though I was of course horrified at her death, and I did watch her deeply moving funeral.
One could say a great many things about all of that; but the bottom line is, there were two great problems in that marriage. First, Diana married much too young, before she had a chance to become her own person, know her own mind, discover her own strength.
The second, of course, being that her husband - who, I believe, is a fundamentally very decent man - did not love her in the way she needed to be loved: truly, madly, deeply. Which is not to say he didn't love her, but it was not the kind of love Diana needed. A tragic mismatch of personalities.
And your Head Trucker knows from personal experience that having the form of love but not the substance makes you crazy in a very short time. Just crazy. Not the kind of crazy that gets you locked up in a padded cell - but crazy nonetheless.
Which can go on for years and years. Which nothing heals. Nothing but time and distance and, eventually, a new perspective.
But I think even those of us who, like your Head Trucker, have long since shed their romantic side can be hopeful about this young couple. William, remarkably, seems to have his head on straight. And Kate, I think, though of course still young and inexperienced, is better grounded and better prepared than Diana was. Kate has had time to grow up and know who she is and what she really wants; and like most young women of this generation is more worldly-wise, one might even say shrewd, than Diana was in 1981.
Of course, as we who have fought the wars and lived to tell about it know, these young people, like all others, still have an awful lot to learn. But as they said themselves in an interview this morning - which I hope to post here later - they are trying to learn lessons from the past. And no doubt the same could be said for all the Royal Family.
So let us wish them every happiness, and the best of life and luck. Even an old grouch and confirmed realist like your Head Trucker cannot help smiling at the thought of young love, tender and sincere. God bless them.
Update: the whole interview isn't available yet, but here's a clip from it that shows the ring:
Update 2: The full interview is now available here.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, harmony; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that I may seek not so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
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We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.
and welcome to the Blue Truck, a blog for mature gay men with news and views on gay rights, history, art, humor, and whatever comes to mind. Plus a few hot men. The truck's all washed and gassed up, so hop in buddy, let's go.
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My Story
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Churches say that the expression of love in a heterosexual monogamous relationship includes the physical, the touching, embracing, kissing, the genital act - the totality of our love makes each of us grow to become increasingly godlike and compassionate. If this is so for the heterosexual, what earthly reason have we to say that it is not the case with the homosexual?
It is a perversion if you say to me that a person chooses to be homosexual. You must be crazy to choose a way of life that exposes you to a kind of hatred. It's like saying you choose to be black in a race-infected society.
If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn't worship that God.
