RIP

The Pope died some days ago and I kept quiet because, for all that I disagreed with him, my Nanna would have come back from the beyond to pull my ear had I spoken my mind. So, like when Reagan died (not comparing the two in any colour, shape or form), I tried and kept my thoughts to myself.

>Prince Rainier's passing< today is a different story. I don't know much about the man and even less about the little Principality of Monaco beyond what the headlines tell the world. What I do know is that his not-so-happy marriage to Grace Kelly was, to me, the final nail on the happy ever after deal. Hearing that a Prince and Princess were married and far from happy? It did something to me (Prince Charles and Princess Diana came much later and by then I was so jaded I didn't even blink. Much.). I had plenty of reason to not believe in happy endings from real life, but the little girl I once was applied her own brand of logic to life: people in her life were unhappy because they were ordinary people. If you got to be a prince or a princess, then you had to be happy.

It took some time for that girl to understand that different people tick to different things and that maybe it was a happy marriage - in its own special interests way. By then I had already become one of those people who I like to call romantic realist (or would it be a realistic romantic?). Don't worry, I won't bore you with my very stark views on the institution of marriage or my more cynical view on relationships. I was just surprised that one little comment made by an adult poolside all those years ago made me pause when I read the headlines this morning saying Prince Rainier of Monaco was dead.

Edit: I've now caught up with my FL as best I could. Unlike a lot of people I actually read the whole thing. Honest. One of the reasons I keep it small. Fine, I skip the communities and syndications most of the time, but I read all the users. I don't always comment, but I do read you.