I WANTED to sleep early on Saturday night because, you know, “early to bed, early to rise makes a person healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
But then, I checked out Facebook instead of cooling down and reading a book after dinner, and then I saw the usual FB post about some news, and this time the news was King Charles’ coronation. And the dilemma began to hover overhead: Should I watch? Should I not? Without Princess Diana there, para que? Still, the coronation was history in the making, so, back to the dilemma: Watch? Not?
“Watch” won. Despite the ho-hum event, I did not fall asleep. Surprise! At least, instead of reading about it in future history books, I was watching its live streaming. That’s the beauty of FOMO—Fear of Missing Out.
Two days later, I and a friend were talking about the coronation when she asked if I watched the concert, too. I said, What concert? She said, The coronation concert. Oh. I missed that.
The best part of the coronation was Prince George, as one of the honor pages, holding the robe’s long train of his grandpa. That was so cute. For a while there, I did look for him when his parents and younger siblings entered Westminster Abbey.
It was only in the ‘80s when Princess Diana got engaged to Prince Charles that I became curious about the British royal family. Before that, the word “royal” would only evoke cravings for Royal Tru-Orange and peanuts, two of my favorite snacks then.
At the height of the phenomenon that was Diana, I bought a book about her, not expecting that her inclusion in the royal family would reveal their behind-the-scenes story, and prove that fairy tales don’t exist.
“And they live happily ever after”—yeah, right.
People reach a certain age when they stop believing in fairy tales. And the tooth fairy. And Santa. But they do continue to keep the faith because sometimes that’s the only thing left to hold on to.
There’s this saying, “To see is to believe.” Debates on religion can start with that: you don’t see God, because He’s not there. You don’t see your emotions, too, but you can feel them, they’re there. The same for aromas and scents, you don’t see them but can smell them. Sounds—you don’t see them, but you can hear them.
So, aside from the fact that it was history in the making, I watched King Charles’ coronation because “To see is to believe.”
In the last few years, the young ones have been saying that Facebook is for old people. If that’s true, it should impose a curfew for its senior fans. Once the sun has left for its nightlife, old people should be automatically logged out of their accounts and allowed to log in only the morning after, at sunrise. The curfew will remind old people to relax after a long day of scrolling down their news feeds. If only there was that curfew, I would not have seen the live streaming of King Charles’ coronation. Yeah, blame it on FB. Haha.
