Popcorn time and popcorn timing

I really liked the expression 'popcorn time' when I heard it for the first time a few years ago. It is a spectator sport alert, a neat and clever way of telling people to get ready because an amusing show is about to start.

I have seen it used a lot recently, and this has reminded me of a popcorn-related incident from the past.

It all started when I took some young children to a shopping centre to see the Christmas attractions. There was a popcorn-making machine there that fascinated my young friends. The popcorn danced on a jet of air; they watched this for a long time.

It was obvious that they wanted me to buy them some popcorn, but a small paper cup cost a small fortune and the popcorn didn't even look very good. As a matter of principle, I won't pay exorbitant prices for low-quality products.

The youngest girl cried and I felt guilty. I remembered getting some really good popcorn from Marks & Spencer a while back, so I promised them that I would bring some with me the next time I came to see them. 

I went to one branch of M & S but couldn't find the popcorn I wanted, which was one big bag with eight small individual bags of Butterkist inside, delicious and ideal for distributing to children. I went to another branch and looked everywhere. I remembered to check the sweet stands near the tills, but the popcorn I wanted wasn't there.

I decided that M & S must have played their usual game of bringing out something edible that people like very much then discontinuing the product. 

King Charles II and synchronicity

I have been doing some research into the English Civil War, the Commonwealth and the Restoration.

I was looking for examples of the swing of the pendulum from one extreme to the other and the way that some people reject one way of life only to adopt one that is equally bad and damaging.

Reading about the Restoration reminded me of a time when I read a lot of historical novels, many of which featured the Merry Monarch King Charles II. He seemed very glamorous to me and much more interesting than most of England's kings. I was impressed by his involvement with the Royal Society and his patronage of Sir Christopher Wren.

I decided to refresh my memory about his life and reign when I got the chance, in the light of all the things I had learned since I read about him when I was just a schoolgirl.

I took some time out to go and meet a former colleague. She put a book into my hands; she said that when she told her husband she would be seeing me, he took a book from his bookcase and said, “Give her this.” 

The book was about the life and times of King Charles II!

No one knew that Charles II was very much on my mind. I have only met her husband once, a few years ago, yet somehow he sensed what I was thinking about.

Perhaps it was just a coincidence, but the universe often ensures that I get the books I want. I just wish that this would work for other things...

This is the book in question:

Unfinished business: three paths people take

I have noticed that some people get away with a lot. They behave badly but suffer no apparent consequences, internal or external. Perhaps the universe sees and treats them the way adults see and behave towards young children. Very small children cannot be expected to have much understanding or take responsibility for their lives, so some of their bad behaviour is excused.

Other people are not so lucky when it comes to dealing with unfinished business. Perhaps the consequences are age- appropriate punishments from the universe.

Failure to express feelings, failure to assert oneself, permitting exploitation of oneself and failure to think, speak and act appropriately according to the occasion are examples of unfinished business, as are ignoring problems in the hope that they will go away, habitually running away from difficult situations, going through life leaving messes, failed relationships and unhappy people behind, being out of touch with reality and not respecting the truth.

Many people find that unfinished business and ignored and unresolved problems and issues make themselves felt, very inconveniently and painfully, over and over again. Perhaps the universe treats selected people like under-performing schoolchildren who must retake the same examinations until the lessons are learned. The difficulty of the lessons and the severity of the consequences and the amount of pain felt when they are not learned may be proportional to the universe's estimate of the capabilities and potential of the student.

Carrying around a load of unfinished business is similar to living with a lot of debt.

Unfinished business can handicap us and sabotage or even ruin our lives.

Mantra: Of Course They Do

There is an expression that has always grated on me: 

"Not I, but God in me” - or paraphrases thereof.

There is another expression that I find very amusing:

“The Devil Made Me Do It”!

I see these slogans as the two sides of the same bad coin; both promote avoidance of personal responsibility.

The first expression seems to me like false humility and the abdication of personal credit, but some people find it helpful and inspiring. Being reminded of it recently gave me the idea of finding some helpful and inspiring mantras for myself.

I thought of one very quickly:

“Of course they do” - with variations and permutations of he/she and does/did.

This expression can be used to explain some people's behaviour in terms of unseen influences and subterranean sabotage. Here are some examples of what I mean.

Stella Gibbons's father's legacy

The father of the novelist Stella Gibbons was a violent alcoholic. He wasted much of his money and spent a lot on drink. However, when he died he left £2,000; this was a decent amount of money in the mid 1920s.

He could have split his estate between Stella and her two younger brothers; he could have left it all to Stella, who was very responsible and would have put it towards her journalism studies; he could have left it to the middle boy, who wanted to be a doctor; he actually left the lot to the youngest boy, the one least likely to make good use of it. He was rather unstable - “the years of fear and insecurity had wounded him deeply” - and he squandered the money in less than a year with nothing to show for it. The other boy was forced to leave school and take a mundane job.

Rudyard Kipling's New Year's Resolutions

Rudyard Kipling’s amusing little poem New Year Resolutions first appeared in an Indian newspaper on January 1st 1887. It was not published in a collected edition until 2013, thus general readers were unaware of its existence.

Kipling was working for local newspapers in India at the time. He lists his bad habits, typical Victorian vices such as gambling, smoking and dancing and flirting with young girls, and makes resolutions to give them up - with an exception for each one.

He knows that giving up a bad habit is much easier said than done, so he decides to implement the resolutions one yearly step at a time, starting with the decision to stop playing cards for money.

He describes a process that many of us go through when making our own resolutions: we will give up eating sweets – except for chocolate; we will start taking more exercise –  once we have got into the habit of eating much less sugar.

Such wisdom is unusual in young men; he was just a few days past his 21st birthday when this poem was published, 130 years ago:

    1.

I am resolved—throughout the year

      To lay my vices on the shelf;

A godly, sober course to steer

      And love my neighbours as myself—

Excepting always two or three

                    Whom I detest as they hate me.                         2.  

I am resolved—that whist is low—

      Especially with cards like mine—  

It guts a healthy Bank-book—so

      These earthly pleasures I resign, 

Except—and  here I see no sin— 

When asked by others to 'cut in'.

        3.  

I am resolved—no  more to dance 

      With ingenues—so help me Venus!

It gives the Chaperone her chance

      For hinting Heaven knows what between us.

The Ballroom and the Altar stand 

Too close in this suspicious land.

(N.B.)   But will I (here ten names) abandon?

                No, while I have a leg to stand on    

        4.  

I am resolved—to sell my horses.

      They cannot stay, they will not go; 

They lead me into evil courses

      Wherefore  I mean to part with—No!

Cut out that resolution—I'll

Try Jilt tomorrow on the mile.

         5.  

I am resolved—to flirt no more,

      It leads to strife and tribulation ; 

Not that I used to flirt before,

      But as a bar against temptation. 

     Here I except (cut out the names) 

x perfectly Platonic flames.

         6.  

I am resolved—to drop my smokes,

      The Trichi has an evil taste.

I cannot buy the brands of Oakes; 

      But, lest I take a step in haste,

And—so upset my health, I choose a

'More perfect way' in pipes and Poosa. 

           7.  

I am resolved—that vows like these, 

      Though lightly made, are hard to keep;

Wherefore I'll take them by degrees,

      Lest my backslidings make me weep. 

One vow a year will see me through; 

And I'll begin with Number Two.

From 100 Poems: Old and New by Rudyard Kipling

https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_resolutions.htm

I found an image of an old sea-mail envelope on which Kipling has typed the first two and the final verses of his poem. It is full of typing errors. As an example, he has put 'Expecting' instead of 'Excepting' in the first verse! 

Kipling visited Japan in 1889 and 1892, so presumably was still working on implementing his resolutions year by year.

Psychic shocks, black clouds and their consequences

Whenever an unpleasant incident or painful event occurs, I look back for a possible cause. As I have described in many other articles, there is often an energy vampire in the case. Being weighed down by a black cloud of bad energy and having had a jarring shock are other frequently-occurring features.

I have remembered a few more incidents; I am recounting these events in the hope of helping people who have had similar experiences but have not made the necessary connections.

I will start with two similar unwelcome encounters.

The first unwelcome person from the past

As I have described in a previous previous article, I fell and shattered my wrist after being in the company of an energy vampire.

People were very kind and helpful while the break was mending: they packed my shopping for me; I got a discount from one man just because my arm was in a sling. Then it all changed. 

I visited the fracture clinic several times, getting a different doctor on each occasion. The last one was South African; he had such a strong accent that it was difficult to understand what he was saying. I was not feeling well; I had trouble concentrating. Then he suddenly said something about my condition that made everything seem much worse. I left the clinic feeling shaken and vulnerable. The streets and the people in them seemed alien, hostile and sinister. I passed a group of teenage boys who laughed at me and said, “Look at her, she's got a broken arm.” I had to pack my shopping myself: the man on the till was detached and indifferent and ignored my struggles. 

Then, as I was walking down a street near to home, I saw someone from the very distant past in front of me, someone I didn't want to meet. Luckily, he had not seen me; he was walking along as if in a trance. I went off down a side street and reached home safely with no further incidents.

King George V's Christmas speech

King-Emperor George V made the first-ever royal Christmas speech. It was broadcast on the radio to all the peoples of the British Empire on Christmas Day 1932.

For many years, the King could not be persuaded to give a personal message to his Empire on Christmas Day. This was due largely to his belief that he lacked the sophistication and flair of other broadcasters, and as the message would be personal in nature rather than a formal address he could not hide behind formality to combat his fears.

All that changed when, at the suggestion of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, Rudyard Kipling was appointed to write the script. King George respected and admired both of these men, so the reluctant speaker was finally persuaded to deliver his message. 

The thick tablecloth that can be seen in the picture below was added to help muffle the sound of rustling papers: the King was so nervous when speaking that his hands shook! Despite this, the King's delivery and Kipling's majestic words were widely acclaimed. The King sounded like a father speaking to his family; Kipling's Christmas message is often seen by historians as one of the great speeches of the twentieth century.