I haven�t watched the video of the royal wedding, yet, but I have plenty to say about it before I�ve even seen it. I heard on the radio this morning that the wedding was watched by 1 out of 3 people, in the world. I can�t even can�t even imagine the stage fright that would induce in me.

I suppose that�s why Diana mixed up her vows. I�m only mentioning it because she supposedly had the same myer�s-briggs personality type as me, considering that, and the circumstances under which she was married, I give her tons of props for only making one small mistake. Thirty years later, they�re still mentioning it in the news.

The other thing that bothers me is that it seems like no article can reference Diana anymore without mentioning that she suffered from depression. As if, everything that went wrong during her reign was due to some crimpling mental illness, and had nothing to do with the circumstances that were thrust upon her.

The positive thing here is that I think the monarchy learned an important lesson from Diana�s life. They attempted to take a modern woman and force her into a medieval lifestyle. Disaster ensued. One generation later, her son seems to be allowed to live a somewhat normal life. Well, as normal as royalty can be.

As far today�s wedding (I still haven�t seen it, yet), the only negative thing I can say is that I�m sad that Diana couldn�t be there.

I can�t get on the �frivolity� and �tasteless display of wealth� bandwagon. It seems strange because I�m usually on that bandwagon when it comes to a lot of regular weddings.

I can�t see a lavish royal wedding as being frivolous because it has been a tradition, not just an English tradition, but in many cultures, to have a lavish royal wedding. Monarchies are a part of many people�s identities because their culture�s matured and solidified under monarchies. Princess stories have survived for so long, even outside of the actual monarchy, because it�s that much a part of culture.

The traditions seen in a royal wedding, such as this, go back thousands of years. The family itself can be traced back thousands of years. Given the British Monarchy, you can hardly come up with any other family that has been more influential on world history. Today�s ceremony is a tether to our collective history.

As far as the wealth part, while I agree that most monarchies have not acquired their wealth and power in a fair way, who does? Anyone who was born with any privilege, at all, and that includes the privilege of their skin color, acquired that privilege because their ancestor treated someone�s else�s ancestor unfairly. Wealth and power always comes at someone�s expense. It�s not free.

I don�t believe that royalty is any better than anyone else, but I recognize it as a legitimate station in life. It�s a burden as much as it�s a privilege, and it has plenty of both.

It�s strange that this wedding would come along when I�ve had wedding�s on the mind, lately. I still haven�t watched the video. I did see pictures of the wedding, and I really love how it turned out. The dress was gorgeous, and so suitable, the whole wedding party looked great, actually. I really love what Pippa had on. Is that a pretty family, or what?

Adam has been a bit amused by my interest in the wedding. Apparently, I don�t seem like the kind of person who would be into it. He isn�t the first to think so, either, but in previous relationships, it was often used an excuse to not indulge what was perceived as my more �frivolous� desires. Actually, I was told that I didn�t have any, and in my eagerness to please, I just went along with it.

Last night, he was engrossed in watching the NFL draft live, while simultaneously playing Madden on FB (it�s a football thing), and giving me a running commentary on the teams, players and events. When I made an ill-timed comment on a different subject, he said, �I�m sorry, but I can�t about that talk now! I�ve been waiting for this all day!� I smiled, kissed him, and said, �Ok, but if this how you�re planning on spending your evening, you really have no business making fun of me for being interested in the royal wedding.�

That seemed to strike him. We have all have something that engrosses us to the complete bafflement of our mates. He said, �Did I make fun of you? I didn�t mean it! Ok, ok, I did say that I needed a royal barf bag, but that�s all! I won�t say anything else!�

Actually, his mild chiding didn�t affect me one bit, but I did want to make my point.

Last weekend, we spent far too much time discussion the state of our relationship, and the future of it. Later in the week, seemingly out of nowhere, Adam started asking me about whether it was better to get a marriage proposal with a ring, or be allowed to choose the desired ring, later? I took it as a hypothetical question, and answered in a vague, it-really-depends-on-the-person kind of way. Finally, he said, �I�m asking you. What do you want?�

I wasn�t shocked, but it did scare me a little bit. After some thought, I said that it�s really important to have exactly what I want, so I�d rather wait to get it, rather than have be given to me on the spot.

I felt pretty nervous the next day, but somehow ended up wondering about what I wanted. So, I looked at rings online, and got an idea of what I wanted, but then ended up feeling even more nervous about the whole thing.

When I�m being wholly true to myself, I�m not a very traditional person, but I suspect that�s the case with most people. When you stop trying to fulfill some abstract expectation of yourself, built out of a jumbled mess from various sources, about what it means to be a good/attractive woman, and start just being yourself, things change a lot.

That occurred to me after I realized that the things I want are so different from what is considered �traditional� today, and I started worrying about criticism.

We keep being told over and over again that if we have certain things, we�ll magically become happy. We don�t take our individual desires into consideration, and believe it. Or, perhaps I�m just weird. Maybe all those things that bridal magazines tell you that you want, really are what other people want. It just unbelievable to me that everyone wants the exact same thing.

It�s not like I�ve made a bunch of decisions and planned my entire wedding in the space of two days. It�s more that I looked at rings and shuddered at the idea of wearing a diamond engagement ring. Thank God I was able to stop that one before it happened.

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