I used to be very fond of studying certain eras in English history. My first ex-husband was the one who got me interested in the first place, since he was a history major at university. He got me interested in reading about Elizabethan England because of the Armada battle and the very interesting economic and social implications. Eventually I collected books and artifacts from several interesting periods of English history.
One day I made a joke that I realized only years later probably contributed to my being assaulted by cultists. It was when I was interested in the period of history called "The Steven and Matilda Wars." I found it a very interesting era because 1) it was pre-medieval and hence a fascinating time for human cultural development and 2) it involved two heirs, one being a woman, fighting for the throne of England. So I was well immersed in reading for pleasure about this period in English history when one day I had to give a talk at work, introducing a new project and the new consultant who would be hired to do the project. As I stood in front of the approximately twenty bank manager colleagues of mine, my boss whispered in my ear, "The consultant is not coming; he decided to take another job." So here were all these managers looking at me. I decided to bring some humor into the situation, since I liked them (not realizing many were cultist snakes) and wanted to make a friendly gesture of humor as a bonding. My boss was a great guy and very fun loving and funny himself, so I took a page from his playbook of clowning around a bit. So I said something like:
"The consultant has decided to take another job, so he is not showing up. Therefore we can't really launch this project right now. So instead I will lecture you on the Steven and Matilda wars." I then spent a few minutes telling them adventure stories (there's a famous escape that is much like St. Paul's escape down a wall) that I especially enjoyed, while they looked at me stunned. My boss thought it was hilarious. It was not a waste of time since the meeting hour had been divided into three parts, and so I just joked for a few minutes in lieu of my twenty minutes. Then I gave the floor to the next person. This was in the mid to latter 1980's, sometime after 1985.
I did not realize that ferocious and anti-Christian cultists were actively stalking me at the time and were looking for "clues" of me "remembering" my so called "past lives." Yep, you guessed it. It was a joke that ended up being on me in a horrible way, as they viewed this as further "justification" that the mean s*** otherwise known as "reincarnation" "exists" (it most assuredly does not). And of course with the "military" and "war" nature of what I was relating in the stories of Ye Olde Merry England, they viewed this as more reason to beef me in the most hurtful backstabbing (and I mean that in a few ways, not just one) methods possible.
Anyway, while I have your attention, did you know that King Egbert of England was viewed as the first real "King" of England because he was able to unify four counties (and for a while, through conquest, a fifth) under him? Each county had it's own king during that time, so he was the first to be recognized as King over all 4/5 of the counties.
Have a nice day and thank you for your attention.