Karma

I love the whole concept of karma.

(See my post: Alcohol and Buddhism)

Whilst the Internet has a lot to answer for: trolling, bullying, grooming, and all those smug yoga pictures on Instagram and Facebook, for example, it can also be a wonderful karma enabler.

Take the sobersphere as a case in point: you blog to help yourself, in doing so you help other people, all around the world, then - when you're in trouble - they come back and help you. It's awesome.

So, here's my latest example of magnificent karma....

#1 and #2 have school exams next week so, despite the fact that this is, in theory, a half term HOLIDAY, I feel obliged to help them with a bit of revision.

However, as it is a HOLIDAY, I think it should be FUN.

That's why yesterday I decided to use several of #3's fluffy toys to re-enact the Battle of Bosworth, with lots of sound effects and gory deaths.

(Lord Stanley, the turncoat, was played by a particularly fetching pink unicorn, which was far better than he deserved).

For the benefit of my non British friends, this is the battle that ended the War of the Roses in 1485.

Richard III (the hunchback, played by a penguin), fought a dashing young Henry Tudor (polar bear), and was eventually cut down from his mount (shouting, according to Shakespeare, "a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!") and killed, leaving Henry to become Henry VII, and father of the one with six wives and a penchant for beheadings.

(Are you still following? I'll come back to the alcohol thing in a bit).

The strange thing was that nobody seemed to know where Richard's body ended up.

Then in 2012 he was, finally, discovered under a multi-storey car park in Leicester. He was dug up and re-buried, last year, with all the due pomp and circumstance, in Leicester Cathedral.

So, after half a millennium of being abandoned and forgotten, Richard was finally at peace, thanks to the good people of Leicester. And here's where the karma comes in....

.....Leicester have a football team - Leicester City. They've never done particularly well, generally languishing in the lower divisions. The last time they got near the big time was in 1928 when they came second in Division One (the level down from the Premier League).

Then, this year, against all the odds (bookies had them at 5000:1) they only went and won the Premier League!

Bookmakers have never had to pay out on such odds for any major sporting event, making this the most unlikely result ever. And all those people who'd put a fiver on their local team to win, out of loyalty rather than expectation, won £25,000.

Now that's a classy way for the Universe to say thank you, don't you think?

(Mr SM says that this is a co-incidence. I say that people who believe in co-incidence have no romance in their soul).

And, just in case you're feeling a bit peeved because this post hasn't yet had anything to do with alcohol, then here's an interesting fact for you:

Studies of Richard III's bones and teeth show significant changes to his alcohol intake after he was crowned in 1483.

All the stress of being an unpopular ruler (and, perhaps, guilt about murdering his nephews, the two Princes in the Tower) led to him drinking three litres of alcohol a day, so they say. No wonder he fell off his horse....

Go make your own karma.

Love SM x