Ruminations on the Royal Baby

So, unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know that the newest member of the royal family - Prince George - has now arrived. 

It seems to me that most people are thoroughly interested and excited about this, or couldn't care less about it. I would say that I am mostly ambivalent, although of course it's great to hear good news for a change. 

My thoughts though, don't stem from what it means to have a monarchy in this day and age, or about whether or not it might be redundant or why... actually, I was thinking that baby George is going to grow up in the hypothetical goldfish bowl. His life will never be normal - in fact, it'll be mapped out for him from today. I was thinking about this and it occurred to me - isn't this true for most people?

I mean, most of us will end up in certain kinds of jobs, living in similar places.. I mean, how different are our lives anyway? In one of my favourite author's books, 'This is How' by Augusten Burroughs, he talks about how on a day to day basis most of us stay within a small geographical area. So the chance to do new things and to go to new places are minimal, unless we make a huge effort otherwise. 

And, once you're settled into mediocrity, we do and say the same things over and over on a day to day basis. One of the things that bothers me most about my life is repetition... I try to make sure I do difference things. In the last year or two, I've been continually working on new photography projects and I've started kickboxing regularly. I've passed my driving test and started a new job. Fortunately, I'm at a point where I've got lots to look forward to and things to plan... namely my wedding. It is just the little things that are tedious. Housework is a perfect example of this. The routine of getting up and getting to and from work is another. They say don't sweat the small stuff, but I have to say it's the small stuff that pisses me off the most. It's the stuff that gets in the way.

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if we all were to get up one idle Tuesday and throw caution to the wind... to abandon time and routine. What would work be like if we didn't all continue to adhere to social codes, etiquette or civility. When I go to work I very much put my 'diplomatic' and 'friendly' head on - where I normally don't feel much like that. How much happier might we be? I'd love to never have to iron again. Or to think that I need to wash the dishes or that I've run out of cat food and have to go and buy some more. Would it be so bad if we were just ourselves and could do the things we really wanted to do? Of course this assumes that we want things to be different. I think most people seem fairly content with cheeseburgers, beer and TV and that is where the problem lies. But that's another topic for another day.

Maybe for baby George, it WILL be different. After all... he'll grow up with the world watching him, but equally, he'll be less constrained than the rest of us. After all, it won't be him scrubbing the toilet on a Thursday evening, or popping to the shop for milk. He'll be able to pursue whatever career he might want - or not - because nothing will be off limits. So, maybe he'll get a better deal than the rest of us drones after all...