Growing up we didn't buy movie snacks if we went to a movie (which was rare anyway. My parents had four kids in five years and once you get that many it costs your entire savings to see a movie). We kids knew not to ask because the prices were outrageous and to buy popcorn and pop was just encouraging a kind of thievery. It was a RIP-OFF!
I remember going to a movie once with two baggies in my coat pockets: one had M & Ms, the other had some home-popped corn. I ate my snacks one kernel and one piece of candy at a time. Every bite was laced with guilt. Every bite was laced with triumph. I was beating those RIP-OFF-movie-theatre-snack-thieves. Ha! ha! Take that! But then the little voice would say it is kind of cheating to bring your own snacks.
Somewhere along the line I changed camps. Maybe it was when I got married. My husband loves popcorn. And popcorn just adds to the experience. It's part of the movie. Without it the movie isn't complete. Now I wouldn't think of going to the movie theatre without snack money along.
Sure, it's overpriced.
Sure, it's bad for me.
But oh, it tastes so good!
I talked to my youngest son tonight about seeing movies when I was a kid. He asked me which one I liked the best. I said I didn't remember (and I don't). I told him we didn't buy snacks at the movie theatre when I was a kid. He almost fainted.
"I can't believe that, Mom!" he cried. "What was wrong with you?"
I told him I must not have known better -- that his father (my husband) had reformed me.
He sighed and I believe he wiped sweat from his brow. Thinking about the possibilities of a movie without popcorn threatened his entire reality.
Before I sat down to write this little post I thought I ought to find a Bible verse that went along with this. I'm pretty sure popcorn isn't mentioned by name in the Bible, but Solomon has some words about food.
He writes in Ecclesiastes 2:24a, "There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink"
And Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:31, "Whether, then, you eat (popcorn or you don't eat popcorn) or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."
(I added the popcorn in that verse by the way. You probably figured that out.)
To eat or not to eat. That is the question....thanks Hamlet. I'm pretty sure Hamlet would have been a popcorn eater and always would have requested extra butter.
I bet Jesus would have too.