“A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs,” Mark Twain once observed. (Following the Equator) He’s right, of course. Who doesn’t desire a little luxury in life? Still, some carry their aspirations too far. Kim Kardashan and her fiancé recently revealed they were disappointed when French authorities turned down their request to be married at The Palace of Versailles. (“Gossip”, The Week, February 7, 2014, pg. 8) Would it be unfeeling of me to note that a personality, like Ms. Kardashan, whose fame rests largely on her bra cup size, might not be worthy of a coronation?
She’s not alone in her illusions, of course. Each year the rich and famous trek to Davos for the World Economic Forum. There they pretend to address global financial problems while behaving as if they were unaware that they are the people who created them.
In contrast to people with pretentions, Uruguay’s José Mujica, described as the world’s poorest president, knows the blessing of humility. Jailed as a revolutionary in the 1970s, he lived for 14 years in a cell, two of them in solitary confinement. For him, happiness would have been a mattress. (Ibid pg. 8.)
What he learned in prison made Mujica wise. Today, as president of his country, he lives in a one-bedroom farmhouse in the middle of a field. The Presidential Palace he has converted into a shelter for the homeless. (Ibid. pg. 8)
Barred from Versailles, I wonder if Ms. Kardashan might consider it more fitting to hold her wedding at Uruguay’s Palace.
(Uruguay’s Presidential Palace courtesy of overlandsphere.com)
