Incurable Romantics

The royal wedding of Prince of Wales to a commoner on 29th April 2011 was not just a huge media event but was billed as being wedding of the century. Cinderella and Prince Charming are real and tangible! The level of attentions paid to this couple was indicative that a large part of humanity are incurable romantics. They like to see a fairy tale come to life; fortunately, it does seems that this couple are rather well adjusted charming individuals that could well pleased the expectations of the many.

Is it naive to wish for happy endings in a world that is full of disappointments and tragedies? It was said that President Franklin Roosevelt will not watch a film if it does not ends on a happy note; we should remember how he had to deal with many decisions that caused many people to suffered and even die during World War II. Perhaps its well that we should look towards the positive while putting up with unhappy events. The orphan Pollyanna shared her philosophy of life with an unhappy and frustrated preacher. She observed that her father who was a preacher had taught her to play the "Glad Game" which was essentially to look at the positive sides; and in his sermons, would concentrated on the "happy texts" in the Bible. Pollyana then quoted from Lincoln who observed that: "When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will."

Humans need to have lofty ideals as models. Alexander took as his model- the godlike Archiles, both Caesar and Napoleon held Alexander the great in turn as their model, and T.E. Lawrence thought of himself as a medieval knight... In the world of fantasy, many girls wanted to be beautiful princesses and many men are dashing princes on white steeds and they would live happily ever after in a fairy tale castle. In the midst of our fantasies, we might well remember the concept of under promise and over deliver. There is a supposed phenomenon known as The Paris Syndrome in which unattached young Japanese ladies would fell prey to the idea of the romantic Paris where they will find the ideal Frenchman of their fantasy; they would saved enough money and then proceed to the city of their dreams only to see their illusions dash to pieces on the rocks of reality.

Yet hopes spring eternal in the human breasts and so to bask in the good cheers generated by this fairy-tale coming to life royal wedding is good for the human spirit; never mind the great expectations and ultimate tragic fable of the Princess Diana, we should let optimism rise again. If something does not turned out as one wish in the past, it does not mean that we are doomed to fail the next time. We should try and try again and then we may yet succeed in the end.