The Rare Gift a Young Prince Brings with Him into the World
The one true constant among true constants is that we, as children, judged our parents. We grew to adulthood and began to respect our elders but judge our children instead. And that sacred time in between what we perceive as our childhood and the moment we realized we were adults, we lovingly refer to as "our" generation.
My generation was marked by iconic figures. The generation before my time was marked by their icons, but mine holds a special place within me and has defined who I am. I guess with a bit of nativity, the same holds true for my elders. The icons of my generation are Lady Diana and John F. Kennedy Jr. Had they lived they would be considered part of my generation today.
I was too young to appreciate the birth of Prince William and Harry. I was slightly older than they but still too young to appreciate how special their birth was to our generation. I was only aware of Lady Diana and how beautiful she was. As I grew older, I was in my early teens when Lady Diana died.
I remember not quite understanding the significance of this but knew somehow the world felt somehow emptier. I could not understand this, you see, because I was still immortal. Like everyone I knew, and everyone else that shared my sacred place in time, we could surely never die. So when one of my own was announced on the news as deceased, a part of me simply refused to accept it. But also a part of me knew.
I witnessed the entire world surround the Royal Family with love and support and It began to sink into me; the realization I was not going to live forever. Adulthood was setting in. As William and Harry grew into their teens I was relatively oblivious. I remember their growing pains being displayed across tabloids and my television screen. I remember nodding to myself and voicing aloud, "Hold your head up, I've been there." I could identify with them.
I remember the same sort of nostalgic purity associated with JFK Jr. I was in college and dating my wife at the time. She was enamored with him as most young girls were. He would be mentioned in our conversations as if he were a dear friend we each knew personally. By this time, I was old enough to have have forgotten that I had once been immortal, and had accepted the fate that awaits us all.Again, the news blared across our screens and tore another piece of our world away.
John's plane had gone down. He and his young fiance and her sister were presumed dead. For many of my generation staring blankly at the television screen this loss marked the end of our age of innocence. But for a time, and it was only a brief moment at that, we were all immortal and we were all royalty.Our children are still perhaps too young to recognize the significance of Prince William and Kate and the birth of our young Prince George of Cambridge. But, just like a generation before, his birth has made his entire generation royalty and each of them immortal. If only for a little while.
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Previously Posted on FullofKnowlege.com
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