Anglophilia, I has it…

I don’t care; I love every minute of the royal wedding hoopla. Although I won’t be getting up at 3:30 a.m. on April 29 to watch The Wedding, I do have the DVR set to record it. In fact, I have several shows about the wedding set to record because I don’t want to miss any of them.

However, I draw the line at watching the made for TV movie about William and Kate’s life. They are just too young to have a movie about them just yet. Now, a movie about Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip would be interesting, since at least 50 years or more have lapsed since they were married and the props and costumes and cars would be of a long ago period. I loved the series about the Tudors, partly because of the wonderful costumes and sets.

I believe that Americans love the English monarchy because England is our "mother." Despite that little dust up back in the 1770s, we do still love our mother and we like to keep up with her goings on. I remember in grade school learning about the English pilgrims who settled at Plymouth Rock. At that young age, I subconsciously learned it was better to have English ancestry than any other. So, that is when my fascination with anything English started. That, and the Disney movie in 1953, “When Knighthood was in Flower,” which was the first movie of that genre I had ever seen.

Children are brought up on nursery rhymes and fairy tales about the beautiful princess and the dashing prince falling in love and living happily ever after. Women spend their youth and sometimes their whole lives waiting for a knight in shining armor to swoop them off to the beautiful castle high on the hill. Those stories make us want to watch the Royals and for a moment pretend to be that prince or princess.

Besides, America’s royalty seems to be our sleazy celebrities like Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan, people who are famous for being famous—or rather, infamous. I think celebrity-behaving-badly worship is far worse than that of English royalty. The Royals have their foibles, but that’s what makes it so much fun to follow them. We may love them, but we want those uppity folks to be brought down a notch or two every so often.

So, even though I can be rabidly patriotic about America, I am a confessed Anglophile, openly, enthusiastically, and forever.

Who'da Thunk? I'm Patriotic!

I heard it the other day. Someone said, “Move to Canada. American is dying!” Now that riles up my patriotism like nothing else could. I believe in our country and think that statement is as offensive as saying “God is dead.” If a long bloody civil war 150 years ago didn’t kill our nation, I do not believe anything can. America has lived through and prevailed over many bad times. The Great Depression, two world wars, several lesser wars, and good and bad politicians have not come close to bringing us to our knees. The hard economic time we are going through now is a part of the normal ups and downs of a capitalistic democracy. That good old Yankee ingenuity will kick in and we will solve this glitch in the road, too. We have to hang in there and support this country and never concede that it is dead. Never concede to any weaknesses. No offense to Canada, but America is the best country on this planet and will remain so for generations to come.