5 Life Lessons from making popcorn

Do you ever get all philosophical when doing something simple? If so, you can forgive my rambling. Grab some popcorn and live your life however you want.

1. Listen to your parents – they learnt from experience and cowboy movies

Years ago, when I was all grown up and out of my parents’ home, like many young people I was trying to do things all by myself. Luckily for me and the entire building my dad was visiting when I attempted to prepare popcorn for the first time. We sat down and turn on a movie. The glow from the kitchen reminded me that I put the pot on the cooker. Flames were beaming up from the pot. My dad put the fire down by pouring flour on it.
‘Don’t you remember? In all cowboy movies they put down the fire with sand.’
Instead of a movie night we had a lovely walk as my apartment was getting aired, and I had to revisit my teenage believe that parents know nothing about anything.

2. Every failure is an opportunity

You live, you learn. If you’re smart you also learn from other people’s mistakes. I was at a party and the hostess decided to make popcorn after midnight. The problem was that she forgot about it for few moments and the apartment filled with smoke. If you ever did popcorn, you probably burnt it once or twice, so you can remember the chocking smell of charcoaled grains. We were desperate to breathe and made a stupid error to open doors as well as windows to create a draft. The idea seemed perfectly sound under pressure, yet with teary eyes and a bit of cough we failed to consider the consequences. The smoke detector in the hallway triggered an alarm for the entire building.
Where was the opportunity in that? We woke up everyone and met few really nice neighbours, who were relieved that their lives were not in any real danger. Sometimes all you can do is go with the flow, and it may not be the worst thing either.

3. Practice makes perfect, but who cares about perfection

It seems that I have to relearn the skill (or art?) every couple of years. I never again had roaring flames, but different cookers, and new pots, played few tricks on me. I would have swore that I did everything right, yet the bottom is either burnt or full of unbroken kernels. You don’t need perfection every time, just throw away what you don’t want and enjoy what’s left.
The lesson is that you cannot predict every consequence of your actions, but you can always try to make the most from what happens.

4. Good things take time

I never liked buying popcorn in a cinema. It’s super salty to make you buy extra sugary drink with that. You either go to a cinema (wink, wink) or to watch a movie, and neither is enhanced by unhealthy snacks. Think of the unnecessary complication of different tastes when kissing, and the greasy fingers.
I’m sticking with homemade stuff and not the microwave, chemically enhanced, but good old wholegrain with a bit of oil and the perfect amount of salt.

5. Everything is better when shared

When writing this post I ate a bowl of popcorn by myself and you know what? It’s not that good. You can mindlessly eat too much of it, it’s not really tasty, nutritious, or filling, it’s sticks between your teeth. If you can, find someone to pass them the popcorn, watch that movie together, and share your misery.