In the wake of what for one reason or another has been quite an intense week, I slithered from my pit this morning and turned on the PC to check email and the news, just as I do every day. And like every day, the BBC website was loaded with grim news: 90+ people, including 32 children, massacred by government troops in the Syrian town of Houla; a shooting rampage by a teenager in Hyvinkaa, Finland; the ongoing eurozone crisis; murders, destruction, political or religious conflict, and the expected daily parade of human misery and folly. Same shit, different day.
Then, as I sat sighing and sipping forlornly at my bucket of coffee, taking the weight of the world on my shoulders as I can tend to, Susan (in the living room on her iPad) sent me a link to the simply wonderful little film above. It's so beautiful, so uplifting and fun that it made us both cry with joy.
The scenario is simple, one that is played out thousands of times all over the world, every single day: a guy asks a girl to marry him. But the imagination, dedication and love that has gone into how he decided to do it is truly an inspiration.
Yes, it's easy to get cynical about something like this - to say it's cheesy, that the song is awful, that it might be a set-up, that it's all "so American" and over-the-top, but I feel to do so would be somewhat missing the point. Taking it at face value it is simply a guy expressing how much he loves his girl and going out of his way in spectacular fashion to tell her he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. What could be wrong with that? Good on him, and good on everyone that supported him in his vision. The performance is joyous and his girlfriend's reaction as it all unfolds is a delight to behold. To cap it all, every single person involved is clearly having a blast in playing their part. All in all, then, this will make millions of people smile in this dark and troubled world, so what's not to love about that?
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