Picture of the Day 4/30/11 and Blog-A Pretty Girl Smiled Friday

Saturday April 30, 2011
Picture of the Day

A PRETTY GIRL SMILED FRIDAY

First, a little backstory:
My grandfather, Henry Cain, was born in England and came to the US in the early 1900’s. After we got a TV that had UHF, Mom watched a lot of Masterpiece Theatre, and I was raised on British shows like “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” “Good Neighbors”, “Danger UXB”, and such. Margie has been to England a couple of times, and lives for the English Premier League. We also watch, and have watched a lot of British programming on PBS and now BBCAmerica. “Doctor Who”, “Yes. Minister”, “Red Dwarf” have been staples on our TV. So it is suffice to say, we are interested in what goes on in Great Britain.

The world has not been a great place lately. Locally, we had a winter that refused to go away, and this past week, the worst flooding I have ever seen in Fairfax.

Globally, there is disaster everywhere. Unrest in the Middle East. Thousands have been killed fighting for democracy. Massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan that leveled towns, killed thousands, and created a nuclear disaster. Just this week, severe storms ravaged the Midwest and South, with devastating tornados that claimed lives in the hundreds.

Politically, this nation is so divided; I don’t think a terrorist attack could bring people together, like 9/11 did. People scream the President was not born in the US. He presents his birth certificate, stating that, “Yes, I was.” People still aren’t happy, saying it’s falsified, or doctored in some way. If there is a third political party in America, it is not The Tea Party, it’s called The Conspiracy Theorists. “The Government blew up the World Trade Center!” ” The government blew up the levees in New Orleans during Katrina to kill all the poor people!” “The President is a Muslim!”

And for me, I’m fighting for my life. Well, not to that extreme, but my body is failing me. Kidneys, knees, aches and pains. I remember saying something to Margie once, “I wish something nice would happen.”

On Friday, something nice did happen.

A pretty girl smiled.

Friday was the Royal Wedding between Prince William, future King of England, and Kate Middleton, a common everyday person. Two people very much in love with each other, and very happy.
It was a big to-do. Women always love a fairytale wedding. Margie got up at 4am to watch. I saw the highlights. If Margie had found her Union Jack, we would have flown it out front.

Some people had no interest in it and that is fine. Some people on Facebook commented that why should we care about the wedding with all the destruction down south. That’s fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Here’s mine.

We needed this wedding. I needed to see that happy couple. I needed to see that very pretty girl smile.
Because with everything going on globally, nationally, locally, and personally, for one brief moment, I could sit back, and think to myself……..

Maybe the world ISN’T coming to an end.

One of the things I wanted to do after I was diagnosed with kidney disease, was to enjoy life. For as long as I can before my health deteriorates to where I end up on dialysis.
And it’s been hard. Life hasn’t been the greatest. So I enjoy the happy moments when they come, however fleetingly. Warm sunshine. Going to the races with Anthony. My sports teams winning. Time spent at the fire station. Finding new facts on the history of Fairfax. Riding in Margie’s Beetle with the top down. Intelligent conversation with friends.

And seeing a pretty girl smile. Thank you, Kate.

And with that, we return you to our regularly scheduled programming of death, destruction, partisan politics, and four dollar a gallon gasoline.
Have a nice day!