A Royal Wedding

Reading my Facebook news feed home page this morning I felt as though I was the only person actually pleased about the forthcoming wedding after the engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton hit the news yesterday.  I must admit to being slightly more irked than I realised I cared but comments of who was going to pay for the wedding and who cared about the royals anyway started to irritate me more as the day went on. 

One such comment from a person who freely admits she went through a top university at the taxpayers expense, (prior to the introduction of tuition fees) and spent her grant on holidays and booze made me feel that we in Britain simply want to have our cake and eat it most of the times.  Republican comments about the monarchy are equally annoying and one wants to say, 'Well go and live in another country if it bugs you that much,' but hey I am British and that would be rude wouldn't it?  Actually, where would one go to escape?  When the news was announced fanfares were sounded on TV show, 'Good Morning America' across the Atlantic and during Prince William's fairly recent visit to Australia people lined the streets to see him; this in a country that has repotedly been on the edge of Republicanism for some years.  The British Monarchy is big news, people follow the celebrity and they love the tradition, ritual and to some extent the escapism, across the globe, after all what could be more romantic than a Prince and a Princess on their Wedding Day? 

As for the cost, the monarchy cost the British public 38.2 million pounds in 2009-2010 (source: BBC News) yet Visit Britain suggest that the places, events and history associated with the British Monarchy bring in around 500million pounds to the British economy on an average year and in the year of the wedding could be up to 900 million, I may not be an economist but by anyones reckoning that's a pretty good margin and compared to the debacle of the Olympics we are hosting the following year... well I'll leave that to you to consider.

Finally the appealing thing about a forthcoming wedding for me is that it brings marriage back into the spotlight, it seems that traditional old fashioned marriage has been out of favour for a while and let's face it the last generation of Royals didn't do much to promote marriage but despite that I still believe that marriage is good for society and I believe it is good for children to grow up with two people who are brave enough and committed enough to make a public declaration of love for each other, not just with emotion but with the will, an action as well as a feeling, to love and to cherish whatever happens and whatever the cost.  It is a rare thing to find in these modern times but if William and Kate have found that together then this wedding, Royal or not, really is a true cause for celebration.

Remembrance Sunday

Remembrance Sunday touches me every year, I'm not sure what one thing it is, it's like it is significant every year of my life for different reasons.  The year one of my best buddies was serving in Afghanistan, the year my Grandfather died on Remembrance Sunday or the year I carried the colour of my detatchment as a young army cadet and the pride I felt.  This year I took my two daughters out to watch the service at the Cenotaph in Chester and the march past that followed, earlier in the week the Mercian Regiment had held a homecoming parade combined with their act of remembrance on 11/11.  The 2 minute silence was tangible as they remembered those who had died in service in a foreign land, 12 candles were lit inside the Cathedral to represent those who had not returned with their regiment, many tears fell.

It's hard to separate the politics sometimes and we all have our own opinions on recent world conflicts but these people do a job, a very difficult job which without being there ourselves we cannot possibly hope to understand.  They are following orders at the end of the day and some sadly pay the ultimate price.  The dignity of a soldier newly returned from Afghanistan and an old veteran in a wheelchair is the same, they are united for that one moment in their understanding of conflict, of sacrifice and of service.  It is only building on that understanding of the cost of war from those who have paid the price that we can move towards peace, peace for all people and a peace that lasts.

Making Statements

'Are you wearing that to make some kind of statement?'


Just one of the obscure comments I have had when carrying my baby using a baby carrier or sling.  I'm not sure what kind of statement it could be but I guess it has a slightly critical edge to it's meaning and it got me thinking... Why is it so alien in our westernised culture to see someone carrying a baby? 

I'm not talking about the type of carrier where said baby dangles by it's crotch, separated from the carers body by the thick piece of foam between them, no, I am talking about cloth carriers sometimes known as slings used by indigenous people the world over and still used by many today, some people also call this baby wearing. 

I thought about that statement question afterwards far more than the questioner probably ever imagined or meant, making a statement, proving a point, being different, not quite the norm, no, it was none of those.  In the simplest terms sometimes baby wearing is just practical, a baby needs to be near other human beings they weren't designed for isolation, pop her in the carrier, she is more settled and I can get on with the housework, playing with her older sister and get around town without finding the best ramps and the lifts but it's also more than that, a lot more than that.

When I carry my baby she's at eye level, people talk to her and make eye contact.  From being tiny that communication gives her confidence and respect.  She's at the centre of what is happening but it's not all focused on her so she feels part of it and learns to behave appropriately in different situations.  Babies who are carried regularly cry less and as a result secrete less of the stress hormone cortisol into their brain.  Babies need the human touch, it is well reported that young babies in Romanian orphanages can become ill due to lack of attention and handling even though they are fed and watered, the human body needs touch to grow and develop and there's another thing, carrying my baby means I can kiss her little head, reassuringly stroke her back without even thinking about it and whisper to her as we stroll along just the two of us in our own little world she knows she is loved and protected.

On reflection then, I suppose yes, I am making a statement, a statement about the parent I aspire to be, one who always remember the infinite privilege of parenting and understands the value of these early years for the future of my children, their children and their children's children, the future is in our arms.


Further articles:
http://www.continuum-concept.org/reading/in-arms.html
http://www.attachmentparenting.org/parentingtopics/babywearing.php
http://www.thegreenparent.co.uk/articles/read/wear-your-baby/
http://www.slingguide.co.uk/benefits.php

To Autumn

When I had to study Keats for my A Levels I never fully understood this poem but as winter approaches and the wind blows the Autumn colours and sunshine away for another year the words ring in my mind.

To Autumn by John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
    Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
    With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
    And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
        To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
    With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
        For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
    Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
    Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
    Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
        Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
    Steady thy laden head across a brook;
    Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
        Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of spring?  Ay, where are they?
    Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, -
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
    And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
    Among the river sallows, borne aloft
        Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
    Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
    The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
        And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.