Often when we stare helplessly back at the face of a loved one whom death has captured in that net from which there is no escape, we question just why it happened. The day the little girl named, Diana married the Prince of Wales, the rest of her life was laid out before her. Of course she knew this, or thought she knew what it would be like, living the life of royalty in one of the oldest monarchies in existence. Everything she wanted.....she would have. Every dream she had ever dreamed.....would come true. Her husband would be generous and thoughtful and loving. Her children would be handsome and intelligent and behave properly. Her home would be comfortable and well furnished and beautiful. She, herself would have friends and holidays and dinner parties. Her inlaws would be kind and patient and helpful.

And she and her prince, and their beautiful children would live happily ever after in that wonderful castle.

So.....were Diana's thoughts any different from the musings of hundreds of thousands of young girls who stand up with the man of their dreams and think of their futures together? Dreams often crowd reality into a corner mainly because the going is much easier when the mind is allowed to float without resistance. But, as old married folks will swear to, bubbles have a way of bursting and we have to build new ones.

Of course this marriage and everything surrounding it was examined minutely under the microscope that is known as "the press". Although the majority of newspaper people would shrink back in horror to be included in the same package as those who write and photograph for the scandal sheets sold in supermarkets, the general public lumps us all together.

They do make for fun reading, those tabloids, not that I've ever bought one, but standing in the check-out line, the headlines do catch the eye. It is apparent that those who publish such trash, stop at absolutely nothing to get a picture or a story. Reports state that the paparazzi jumped off their motorcycles in the tunnel of death and began taking pictures of the dead and dying inside the car. Everyone interviewed was absolutely shocked at that behavior but when a German paper printed the pictures of the dying princess, millions were snatched up by the "outraged" public.

Then the news of the driver's drunken condition hit the front page and millions swarmed forward happy to put some of the blame on his coffin. Still it was the attempt to flee the relentless photographers that caused the high speed chase with a drunk at the wheel and resulting crash into solid concrete.

Who would have expected, who can explain the outpouring of sympathy, out right sorrow, open weeping, and deep grief that the death of Diana has brought out across the world? Women identify with the dead woman immediately because in our own minds, we would like to be princesses or at least be treated as princesses. We want the very same things that the young princess wanted and we'd like to look like she looked, wear clothes as well as she did, be as sweet and generous as she.

But then there is the price to pay for being a princess that commoners never have to worry about. There is the paparazzi, or those who will stop at nothing in their mad pursuit to capture every moment of life and record it on the front page of some scum sheet. But.....you know what? If nobody BOUGHT those papers, the paparazzi and all their kin-folks would soon be out of work. Now wouldn't that be too bad!

Think about it!