Will and Kate... What's Up With That? (All you need is love, na-na-na-na-na...)

Will and Kate

To me, the most fascinating element of the upcoming Royal Wedding in the UK is the worldwide interest. It's hard to imagine how the nuptials of two English twenty-somethings could generate such an avalanche of coverage. But there it is, splashed all over the newspapers and animating television and Internet news. Day after day of "analysis", social commentary, speculation, royal retrospect, human interest, and most unseemly gushing.

Kate, simply by becoming engaged to the future King of England, moved from "Attractive, college-educated Brit with a promising future", to "A-list celebrity with mega-wattage star-power." The transformation was virtually instantaneous.

Caché  of Cool:

Interestingly, and also instantaneously, the whole "English-heritage" vibe now has a resurrected caché of cool that I haven't seen since - well - the tragic death of Princess Di and prior to that her wedding to Charles.

London - my last visit

I've been fielding some interesting questions lately. And the funny thing is people think I'm qualified to answer them just because I was born and raised the other side of The Big Pond. So, just in case you're poised to ask me something about "Heraldry", "The Lists" or - as one facebook friend queried, "Exactly what does 'knackered' mean?", let me outline the extent of my qualifications to offer commentary on the Royal Wedding.

• I was born in the south of England and raised in the Kentish town of Folkestone.
• I attended an all boys prep school where we all wore coats and ties and had to wear caps - all in the school colors.
• I played cricket, established a long-standing school record in the sport, know what a "sticky wicket " is, and can use words like "googlie" fluently.
• I turned 18 the year the UK lowered the age of majority and voted in the 1974 parliamentary elections.
• I have a cousin who worked as a footman in Buckingham Palace, rode on the royal coach, and earned international fame the day he saved Queen Elizabeth when an intruder entered her chambers. They are friends to this day and still get together to play Scrabble (Monopoly would be pointless...).
• I remained a British Citizen until 1985

The intriguing question as to "why" as many as three billion earth-dwellers will likely tune in to the Friday morning ceremony, has - I believe - a fairly simple answer.

I think it's those guys from the Wizard of Oz...?

People are desperate for some good news - especially good news that translates well across international and cultural boundaries.  They want to celebrate coming together, they need to affirm the foundational goodness and belief that is resident in the human spirit, and - most elementally of all - they want to believe in love.

That's why Will's father and Princess Di's husband, Prince Charles, was and is so deeply unpopular. Charles obviously didn't believe in love, and they hated him for it.

Personally, my heart aches for men and women who don't believe in love. Because Love believes in them.

That's why half the world or more will be watching Friday morning. It's not the pageantry; it's not the shallow, vapid appeal of A-list celebrity; it's not the love of monarchy. No, it's a chance to see love on the world stage, and it's an invitation to believe. And it's an invitation to believe that is not going unnoticed...

Westminster

So I sure hope the preacher that morning doesn't miss this unprecedented opportunity to say something about love that is so true it transcends every barrier we try to erect to hem it in. I pray that the preacher says, in all humility, that what it's going to take for Love to Win in the here and now, is our active participation in living the truth of it out loud.

Like I said before, "Love has already won!" What's required of us is to live as if we believe.

You don't have to have a cousin who's buds with "Queen E-2" to understand that.

In love, and because of love - DEREK