Can William and Kate be a ‘normal couple’

Hi and thanks for visiting my blog, just for something different with this entry, I am providing a spoken recording of this particular post. I have included my reasons for doing so in the podcasted version, so if you would like to listen, just follow this link William and Kate, a normal couple?

The written entry:

Can William and Kate be a ‘normal couple’ ?

How many times was the word ‘normal’ pushed up next to any mention of Prince William and Kate during the wedding build-up? Who were they trying to kid? What was normal about a wedding that size?

Sure, we all understand the need for some privacy, and William would understandably have special concerns about Kate and the intensity of press interest, but drop the pretense of normality. Since when did being born into a family that that is nurtured and promoted by the state, both as tourist icons, and as the modern facsimiles of a lineage that proves the previous greatness of the nation mean normal?  I think never.

It has been documented that once the media turns its spotlight away from achievements, and onto the details of an individual’s private life, then it is at that moment that the individual has moved into the realm of celebrity. From this point on, the details of their private life become the objects that the media trades, to consumers who are eager for more. This knowledge is not new, and so if privacy ever really was a consideration, then screening a movie about the details of how the couple met, just prior to global coverage of their wedding, hardly removes our gaze from the details of their private life.

Perhaps our fascination with celebrity can be partly explained by the irreverent behaviour we are more likely to get away with, in our acts of celebrity worship. It is as if a mass hypnosis can take over, making ‘out of the ordinary’ behaviour so much more acceptable. People picnicking on traffic islands in London, and handing out food and drinks to strangers is not usual, but people love to play their part when the occasion allows. Maybe this creates a communal sense of belonging that magnifies our good feelings towards celebrity.

Either way, you can’t say that these things are normal or every-day, they happened because William and Kate are part of the state machine that is able to play host to the world on this scale. Examples like the British ambassador in Bolivia inviting a local couple who were tying the knot on the same day, to marry at the British embassy, as evidence that “this is a human event as well as a grand state event”, doesn’t make this marriage ordinary. It really just serves to show just how much their wedding belongs to the state. I’ve learnt enough to know that William and Kate are celebrities, and I’m sure that they know this too. 

When you travel, you can learn with your feet!

Back in November 2010 my wife and I made a trip to the Mungo National Park in NSW. This is an area where human remains dating back approximately 40,000 years were discovered. We travelled there from Mildura in Victoria in a four wheel drive, and the trip included approximately 100km of dirt road, so I definitely recommend not taking a regular car.

Lake Mungo is an ancient dried lake bed which until 15 thousand years ago, was a source of food and water for native Australians. As you approach from the west, it is defined by a massive 35km sand-dune that runs down the far side. The impression is of a huge dry crater when you get your first view, and it feels like a place from another time, which it pretty much is, and if you have any recollection of the 1960’s show ‘Time Tunnel’, there is a strange feeling that you just tumbled into one of their episodes.

The lake viewed from the dune

The highlight is walking around the dune on the far side of the lake, it is here that you are liable to make some ancient discoveries with your feet. The dune acts like a real-time geology class. Yep, you are actually learning about the past, as you walk over it. The wind blows the sand and dust off the dry lake-bed, and this builds up to form the dune. But with weathering, and the progress of time, the sand shifts around, and collectively travels a meter or so each year.

This movement causes the dune to churn as it moves, and the effect is that different fossils successively rise to the surface, so what is revealed one year will be different from the next. You literally have to watch where you walk, in case the reading of the past that is presented to you, is damaged by your enquiring steps. Our guide was of the opinion that with time, many more human remains will be discovered as they rise back up from the soft sand that they were originally buried in.

Ancient fire pit

Walking across the dune is a learning experience. Fossils are so plentiful, that as we walked, our guide pointed out the remains of a fire-pit recently exposed on the surface, which like the shells and assorted animal bones, dated back to when this area was a productive wetland, and frequented by the nomadic people of the time. Mungo National Park is worth a visit, the stillness and the emptiness can make you feel like you have experienced the planet in a way that is unique, and rarely possible, I got the feeling that the earth remembers all. 

Another view from the dune