Everyday Canvas

“Let them eat cake!”

Prompt: A second Royal Baby will soon be joining the Windsors in England. Would you rather be an heir to the throne or an off the hook sibling?

-----------------------

“Let them eat cake!” I stole this line from Marie Antoinette. Although she directed it to the peasant crowd, I am re-directing it to the royalty. Also, they can have their cake and eat it, too, as long as they don’t come near me. I don’t want to be introduced to the queen and neither do I want to be dubbed as a knight—if it were possible for the women-kind—or be called a lady. As George Orwell said about them(!), “A generation of the unteachable is hanging upon us like a necklace of corpses.”

Being heir to a throne or an off-the-hook sibling or any member of the royal family, therefore, is definitely out of the question. I neither fathom nor want to be linked to them no matter how far, be it 10th cousin twenty times removed. I wish all royalty well, whether what they eat is a cupcake with a cherry on top or a double-trouble devil's white cake. When taken one by one, as people, the royals look like slaves to me, born into a kind of richly endowed slavery, Orwell’s “corpses” simile seeming to fit so well.

No offense, but I am a free woman, an American to boot, and I want nothing to do with such a debilitating fantasy. I’d rather be the girl-next-door to my guy and win any accolades through my own striving and work, rather than through any crown put upon my head at birth.

To me, real nobility is having integrity and high morals that makes the saying "Noblesse oblige" worthwhile. To me, it has to be, “all men (and women) created equal” and “one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.” And I believe it will be, if not right away. Isn't it what we all want at least on this side of the ocean?