Princess

I love to read; I believe it is healthy to escape our world sometimes through books, and sometimes, the more outrageous the world or plot, the better. I am a girl who tends to take the books I read very seriously, to the point of imagining myself as a particular character in order to better understand and become one with the story. I love long series' of books that involve the same characters, since I tend to get very attached to them; and the end of a series is always bittersweet because I long to continue life with these characters in these worlds.

Some of my favorite series' include Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule, Orson Scott Card's Ender Series, and Brian Jaques' Redwall Series. I also love to read absolutely any classical literature, as nothing beats masterful English prose.

My current obsession is closer to home, but takes place about five hundred years ago in Europe. I have been reading several different works of historical fiction and biographies of the Tudor and Stuart lines of royalty. I am just absolutely crazy about them and, as usual, it has made me obsessed with being a princess. I am not sure why on earth I would want to be a princess, as they, more often than not, had to to endure awful marriages for the good of the family and/or country. They also had to be constantly aware of scandal and the importance of bearing a male heir, but for all their worries, a princess had it pretty good. Most princesses were learned in many languages and lessons, could play instruments and dance well, were surrounded by intelligent people, lived in great houses, and the clothes were absolutely fantastic! The castles were a little drafty in winter, but I am sure Windsor Castle could not be too much colder than my house in the middle of winter, when the only warm place in the house is the two foot radius around the wood stove. I am sure I could bear the cold if I got to wear layers of purple velvet all winter.

Anyway, the thing that always got me about royalty (excepting only the Golden Queen, Elizabeth Tudor) is that they have so much, yet it is not good enough. Mary of Scots (my absolute favorite queen), for example, had an entire kingdom that Elizabeth was willing to leave in peace, but she would not let rest her claim to the English throne. Yes, her claim was better than Elizabeth's if you want to go by truer bloodline, but come on! You have an entire kingdom that is at peace and you are the head of it! What more do you need? Besides, her army was smaller and there was no way she could ever win against England in a war. Her failure to be content with her lot led to a very premature death after a life of imprisonment, instead of a happy reign in Scotland. That is the very watered-down version, but that is the overall theme of her life.

I am an ambitious person, to the point where I usually get what I want from life, but I am utterly confident that I would have let this issue rest and been a perfectly happy Queen of Scotland. It just does not seem worth it to lose one's life for greed. I am always surprised at the greediness of people these days, but then I remember that it is not "these days" that spew out greedy people; they have always existed, and always will. I think greed can be mastered, however, with a little self discipline.

Sorry, that was my little tangent for today, born to existence by my anger/sadness at various queens dying needlessly because of too much ambition (either their own or their family's). I can tie this to my Little P by saying that I hope he is ambitious and always seeks what he wants from life. However, I also hope that he realizes that his happiness should come first and that he should draw the line between ambition and greed before his neck is ever threatened by the executioner!

I am going back to my reading now. Current book: The Constant Princess by Phillipa Gregory.