The Royal Wedding 2018 – The Power of Love

I have always believed in the power of love. The much anticipated Royal Wedding, held on 19th May 2018, was one of the most magnificent displays of the power of love, and I’ll give you three reasons why what I’ve said is not a hyperbole.

Firstly, the Royal Wedding showed the power of love to break barriers. One of my favourite people ever to walk the face of the earth is writer and activist, Dr. Maya Angelou. Angelou was a woman who lived by love and believed in its power to overcome all. This is typified in one of her most memorable quotes “Love recognises no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” In the months leading up to the Royal Wedding, many things were revealed about the bride, suggesting that Meghan was in no way a traditional Royal bride. “An American divorcee, a mixed race woman, and a Hollywood actress marries the love of her life, the sixth in line to the British throne”. If this is not the greatest modern fairy-tale, I am curious to find out what is. This wedding proved that love has the power to shatter barriers and ultimately conquer all.

On top of this, it evinced the power of love to unite. I cannot put into words, the way I felt listening to the uplifting sermon by a black Bishop, Bishop Michael Curry. I felt the exact same way watching the black gospel ‘Kingdom Choir’ sing ‘Stand by me’ by the late soul and R&B African American singer, Ben E King. That feeling did not depart from me as I watched black cellist, Sheku Kanneh Mason, bless the world with his talent. I felt the same way watching Meghan’s graceful African American mother, radiate melanin in all its glory. It was a feeling of pride. As Meghan walked down the aisle alone (for the most part) whilst wearing her dress made by the 1st female artistic director of Givenchy, Clare Keller; I could not help but wonder how feminists round the world felt. As I watched some of the most prominent American personalities including Oprah Winfrey, Serena Williams and George Clooney, arrive Windsor, I was elated to see America mark present at a wedding of one of their own. One wedding brought British Royalty and blackness, girl power, entertainment and America all together to eat at the same table? Safe to say, the Royal Wedding just united the world.

I’d like to add that one of the many reasons I felt a personal connection to the wedding is the striking resemblance between the values Concord has taught me and values displayed at the ceremony. Seeing black people being represented at the event was a reminder of the importance of diversity – a concept Concord understands and epitomises. Bishop Curry’s sermon on the power of love was an echoing of Concord’s belief in kindness, and treating others with love and respect always.

Finally, the Royal Wedding indicated the power of love to bring light into this very dark world. Every day we turn on the news; if a bomb has not gone off somewhere taking dozens of precious lives with it; a town has been thrown into mourning because of a school shooting. Today, the story on the news was different… a good different. Love was celebrated, and it made us forget about the hate. Allow me to follow Bishop Curry’s trend and quote the great Martin Luther King: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

P.S. A quote by MLK was used at a Royal Wedding sermon?! Dear History, on May 19th 2018, you were made.

Onyinye – 6.2