Socrates
May 24th 2004, 03:10 AM
The Danish royal wedding was a potent symbol of the power of family, affection and obligation. Little wonder so many [in Australia] tuned in.
Andrew Bolt (not even a Christian)
Herald Sun
19 May 04
www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,9598329%255E25717,00.html
IT wasn't just Frederik's tears of love at the altar that made his wedding to our Mary Donaldson so glorious.
It wasn't the whole peasant-to-princess fantasy, either, of a Tasmanian girl becoming the bride of the Crown Prince of Denmark before the crowned heads of half of Europe.
There was something far more profound, far more inspiring on display at this wedding that made it so compelling that more than a million Australians watched it on television -- twice.
Here was a happy love made also solemn and meaningful, not just for Frederik and Mary, but for all Denmark. For us, too, really, because this was one of the great affirmations of love, duty and community.
All weddings, of course, should be about love -- honouring it and pledging it before the world.
And this wedding basked in love, from the moment Denmark's Queen kissed her smiling son at the altar as she entered the church, to the passionate speech the Prince gave to his crying bride at the wedding party afterwards -- "I love you Mary. Come, let us go! Come, let us see! Throughout a thousand worlds, weightless love awaits."
Queen Margrethe also spoke of love, telling her son in front of the wedding guests that he'd been "surrounded by love and affection" all his life, and had "a warm heart which strikes everyone who meets you", yet Mary had "brought springtime into your heart, and everything blossomed around you, as we see season in full bloom in this month of May".
All weddings should affirm such deep love, but this one did still more.
This wedding also celebrated duty -- so often a word that sounds grim, but in truth one that helps to lovingly join us to each other, and to the past and the future, too.
Weddings are also about duty because they not only honour a love, but are a vow to keep forever a partnership of care, intimacy and trust in which the deepest love lives.
As the Bishop of Copenhagen, Erik Norman Svendsen, told Frederik and Mary at the church: "We all need confidantes to share life with and nowhere is this realised as intimately and with such mutual giving as in marriage."
As I said, all weddings should celebrate such a duty -- such mutual giving -- but Frederik and Mary explicitly accepted great public duties as well that made their marriage seem all the more meaningful.
"A royal couple does not belong solely to each other, but to all of us," Bishop Svendsen continued in his fine sermon, so humane.
"We feel it, and you know it. Great assignments and many obligations await you, who will continue the Danish monarchy and thereby the Danish social structure."
BUT every good marriage reinforces the social structure of our community, even if not as markedly as Frederik and Mary's will, we hope, help Denmark's.
This is one of the great affirmations of a marriage -- a bonding of two people not just through love, but duty. It is the creation of a family, a community, out of individuals. The giving of meaning to two lives once lived alone.
All weddings should affirm duty as well as love, but this one did yet more.
The monarchy we know best, the one we share with Britain, too often seems an institution that eats people.
The royals feed the monarchy, not the monarchy the royals. See how the life and love drained out of Margaret, Diana and even Charles.
See how dry Philip has been sucked, and Anne, too.
Just so with the Japanese monarchy. Last week Crown Prince Naruhito, on his way to this wedding in Denmark, bitterly attacked unnamed palace forces for stifling the spirit of his wife, whom he'd vowed at his own wedding to "protect with all my strength".
"Masako has tried her best these 10 years to try to adjust to palace life, but it has exhausted her," he said.
"It is true that there have been movements to deny Masako's career and her character."
How often have we seen our society's official institutions -- whether monarchies, parliaments, courts or churches -- suffocate individuals instead of support them. Just as bad marriages may.
But in Frederik and Mary's wedding we saw that these great institutions, without which civilisation is at risk, can be very human without losing their authority -- just as they should be.
Just as a good marriage is.
The Danish Queen declared a love for her son and new daughter-in-law -- "We, her parents-in-law, have come to love and admire her" -- without in any way losing her royal dignity.
In fact, she enhanced it.
What is a monarchy to symbolise, after all, if not the protection of the very values and choices that make life purposeful and happy?
Denmark's Lutheran Church also showed itself as an institution that nurtures love and life, not crushes it. [Reminds me of what William Wallace wanted in Braveheart: "You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom." :soc:]
Frederik and Mary were married by a bishop who spoke to them of love, and how if we fall short, "God will forgive us in his love and urge us to love again".
Behind him stood a great and famous statue of Christ -- not on the cross, but standing there with arms reaching out and underneath great chiselled words in Danish: "Come unto me."
"Come unto me," goes the full passage from Matthew, "all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."
A CALL to love and love again, and to always know there is a sanctuary. As with the church, as with a community, so it must be with a marriage.
All this -- love, duty and community -- we saw affirmed so brilliantly in the wedding of Frederik and Mary, and at a time when we sometimes fear we're forgetting the values that bind us.
No wonder it meant so much to so many of us.
Andrew Bolt (not even a Christian)
Herald Sun
19 May 04
www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,9598329%255E25717,00.html
IT wasn't just Frederik's tears of love at the altar that made his wedding to our Mary Donaldson so glorious.
It wasn't the whole peasant-to-princess fantasy, either, of a Tasmanian girl becoming the bride of the Crown Prince of Denmark before the crowned heads of half of Europe.
There was something far more profound, far more inspiring on display at this wedding that made it so compelling that more than a million Australians watched it on television -- twice.
Here was a happy love made also solemn and meaningful, not just for Frederik and Mary, but for all Denmark. For us, too, really, because this was one of the great affirmations of love, duty and community.
All weddings, of course, should be about love -- honouring it and pledging it before the world.
And this wedding basked in love, from the moment Denmark's Queen kissed her smiling son at the altar as she entered the church, to the passionate speech the Prince gave to his crying bride at the wedding party afterwards -- "I love you Mary. Come, let us go! Come, let us see! Throughout a thousand worlds, weightless love awaits."
Queen Margrethe also spoke of love, telling her son in front of the wedding guests that he'd been "surrounded by love and affection" all his life, and had "a warm heart which strikes everyone who meets you", yet Mary had "brought springtime into your heart, and everything blossomed around you, as we see season in full bloom in this month of May".
All weddings should affirm such deep love, but this one did still more.
This wedding also celebrated duty -- so often a word that sounds grim, but in truth one that helps to lovingly join us to each other, and to the past and the future, too.
Weddings are also about duty because they not only honour a love, but are a vow to keep forever a partnership of care, intimacy and trust in which the deepest love lives.
As the Bishop of Copenhagen, Erik Norman Svendsen, told Frederik and Mary at the church: "We all need confidantes to share life with and nowhere is this realised as intimately and with such mutual giving as in marriage."
As I said, all weddings should celebrate such a duty -- such mutual giving -- but Frederik and Mary explicitly accepted great public duties as well that made their marriage seem all the more meaningful.
"A royal couple does not belong solely to each other, but to all of us," Bishop Svendsen continued in his fine sermon, so humane.
"We feel it, and you know it. Great assignments and many obligations await you, who will continue the Danish monarchy and thereby the Danish social structure."
BUT every good marriage reinforces the social structure of our community, even if not as markedly as Frederik and Mary's will, we hope, help Denmark's.
This is one of the great affirmations of a marriage -- a bonding of two people not just through love, but duty. It is the creation of a family, a community, out of individuals. The giving of meaning to two lives once lived alone.
All weddings should affirm duty as well as love, but this one did yet more.
The monarchy we know best, the one we share with Britain, too often seems an institution that eats people.
The royals feed the monarchy, not the monarchy the royals. See how the life and love drained out of Margaret, Diana and even Charles.
See how dry Philip has been sucked, and Anne, too.
Just so with the Japanese monarchy. Last week Crown Prince Naruhito, on his way to this wedding in Denmark, bitterly attacked unnamed palace forces for stifling the spirit of his wife, whom he'd vowed at his own wedding to "protect with all my strength".
"Masako has tried her best these 10 years to try to adjust to palace life, but it has exhausted her," he said.
"It is true that there have been movements to deny Masako's career and her character."
How often have we seen our society's official institutions -- whether monarchies, parliaments, courts or churches -- suffocate individuals instead of support them. Just as bad marriages may.
But in Frederik and Mary's wedding we saw that these great institutions, without which civilisation is at risk, can be very human without losing their authority -- just as they should be.
Just as a good marriage is.
The Danish Queen declared a love for her son and new daughter-in-law -- "We, her parents-in-law, have come to love and admire her" -- without in any way losing her royal dignity.
In fact, she enhanced it.
What is a monarchy to symbolise, after all, if not the protection of the very values and choices that make life purposeful and happy?
Denmark's Lutheran Church also showed itself as an institution that nurtures love and life, not crushes it. [Reminds me of what William Wallace wanted in Braveheart: "You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom." :soc:]
Frederik and Mary were married by a bishop who spoke to them of love, and how if we fall short, "God will forgive us in his love and urge us to love again".
Behind him stood a great and famous statue of Christ -- not on the cross, but standing there with arms reaching out and underneath great chiselled words in Danish: "Come unto me."
"Come unto me," goes the full passage from Matthew, "all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."
A CALL to love and love again, and to always know there is a sanctuary. As with the church, as with a community, so it must be with a marriage.
All this -- love, duty and community -- we saw affirmed so brilliantly in the wedding of Frederik and Mary, and at a time when we sometimes fear we're forgetting the values that bind us.
No wonder it meant so much to so many of us.