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A CHRISTMAS WISH

CHRISTIAN LOVE WAS DEAD, to begin with. There is no doubt whatsoever about that. The confirmation of its burial was signed by prominent Christian clergymen, the Congress, the Senate, the Supreme Court and at least 40% of the U.S. population. President Trump signed it. Christian love (another name for Jesus, the God of love back in the day and said to have been born on Christmas day) was as dead as a doornail.

There is no doubt that Christian love was dead in the United States of America during the Xmas season on the eve of Christmas 2025. This must be distinctly understood or nothing wonderful can come of the shamelessly ripped-off Dickens’ tale I am about to relate.

Cartoon used by permission: 302456_Trump Insults by Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News, NY

Oh man! The 47th President of the United States was a wicked, cold-hearted, perverse, cruel old man who worshipped gold—a covetous old sinner was he! Trump was the color of a Halloween pumpkin with blond hair that was the texture of straw. But his “best” demonic quality was that he was a consummate liar. He would choose to lie when the truth would serve him better in a given situation. No one with half a heart would ever countenance an audience with him if they didn’t want to lose part of their soul in his presence. He salivated over money, authoritarians, and billionaires with an unrequited passion and disdained the poor and disenfranchised as if they were diseased-infused manure. But in spite of all of his money and friends in high places, he had no taste or class. Everything he touched and everywhere he went, tackiness followed him.

Cartoon used by permission: 301773_Overboard With TACKY Gold by Ed Wexler, CagleCartoons.com

The country Trump ruled was split into two camps in his mind: the “haves and the have-nots”. The “haves” happened to be light of skin, and the “have nots” were of darker complexion who he reasoned had, at one time or another, immigrated from what he called “shithole countries.” One of those citizens worked as a night janitor in Trump’s massive White House scrubbing toilets and collecting trash for minimum wage. Although his hair was totally grey indicating a man of advanced years, he was the size of a pre-teen child having suffered from malnutrition most of his life.

“A Merry Christmas, President Trump, God save you,” said the ‘shithole janitor’ one evening, in a much too cheerful voice for his circumstances. “May I collect your trash, Sir?”

“A Merry Christmas, you say,” barked Trump. “BAH HUMBUG!”

The janitor could barely make ends meet due to his meager salary and lack of healthcare, but despite the fact that he was facing eviction and had no money for Christmas gifts for his kids, the janitor’s face was all aglow and full of good cheer. “Christmas, a humbug, Sir?” said the humble janitor. “You don’t mean that, I’m sure. Weren’t you the one who promised to bring back the greeting of ‘Merry Christmas’ cheer to our country?”

Cartoon used by permission: 301312_Merry MAGA Christmas by Rick McKee, CagleCartoons.com

“I do, and I did,” grumbled Trump. “But I don’t really believe in any of it. Christmas is for suckers. I just said I supported Christmas and Jesus to get votes from the MAGA Christians (talk about suckers), although I’ve been wondering if I’m going to get into Heaven because I haven’t been feeling so great lately. Weird shit keeps happening to my ankles—they’ve turned into disgusting cankles. And for some reason I can’t stay awake in meetings; plus, not enough people are loving Trump throughout the land as they should. I’m not feeling the love from God either, or else he’d make this Epstein shit completely vanish.  Am I going to die soon? Although, I have enough money to buy my way into anywhere, but still….

“Oh, BAH HUMBUG! Anyway Janitor, what right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? Judging from the look of you, you’re poor enough—too poor to get into a garbage dump—let alone Heaven. Here’s the secret: If I could have my will, every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled in fried chicken grease and buried with a stake of holly through his heart!”

“There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited,” replied the dark-skinned janitor. “But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas-time—apart from the honor due to its sacred name and origin (if anything belonging to it can be apart from that)—as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, Mr. President, though it has never put a Bitcoin or a share of stock in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good and will do me good; and I say God bless it!”

“Oh, bah humbug,” replied the pumpkin-faced old man. “What a load of crock you speak. Where’d you learn to speak English so good anyway?  Don’t answer—not interested in your stupid life. Get out of my face, little brown piggy before I extra-dict, extra-doct, extra-dose…oh, whatever, before I drop kick your smelly, cat-eating carcass back to the shithole country you came here from. No one gave you permission to disturb me. I’m starving. I need to go and get something to eat. My nightly two-patty Big Mac sandwich, Double-sized World-Famous Fries, and a large Diet Coke are waiting in my personal dining room.”

“Well then, I bid you good night Sir, and God bless you—God bless us, everyone!” replied the inordinately cheerful janitor.

“BAH HUMBUG!!

Cartoon used by permission: 302777_Santa’s New List by Christopher Weyant, The Boston Globe, MA

The janitor scurried off to his next chore, as he shook his head in sadness and prayed for the sorry state of the soul of his country’s leader. The Orange King removed himself to his melancholy quarters in the White House to eat his melancholy dinner. No one else lived there in this part of the mansion—not even his wife—not even a mouse. The only other occupants were his gold-plated artifacts and his piles of graft money he’d made since he took office the second time. He gorged himself on two helpings of Big Macs, put on his night bonnet to keep his perfectly coifed hair in place, and opened his social media account to begin the night’s hateful, vile, insipid comments against his perceived enemies.

And then without warning, President Donald J. Trump collapsed into a very deep sleep.

‘Till this day, the President could not remember how long he slept. However, I’m told he remembers very clearly what shook him out of his deep slumber. He heard bells—scores of cacophonous bells ringing in his chambers accompanied by the sound of dragging chains. Trump then remembered he once heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as dragging chains. The White House was certainly old enough to entertain ghosts. At that moment, his dining room door opened with a booming sound, and a colossal flame which engulfed three figures, appeared before the President’s eyes.

“Who are you?” screamed Trump. “Secret Service, Secret Service, come quickly, I’m being attacked by Antifa.”

“We are not Antifa, and your Secret Service team has fallen asleep under our spell and will remain so until our work here is done. We are the three ghosts of Micah 6:8 from the Bible you say you believe in.  We have been sent to you by the God of Christmas,” said all the ghosts in unison. “We represent the mandate given to all people who say they believe in God, and who claim they want to get into Heaven.”

“Mandate? What mandate,” said Trump. “I didn’t set up any Micah 6:8 mandate, and if I didn’t pass that bill, it ain’t happening! Get out, get out, GET OUT!”

In a perfect Greek chorus recitative, the three ghosts once again spoke in unison. 

Cartoon used by permission: 301485_The Xmas Ghost of Epstein appears by Malcolm McGookin, CagleCartoons.com

“I am the Ghost of Justice,” said a young woman who was the spitting image of all the Epstein young women who were ever defiled by Epstein and his buddies. “We could have all been your daughter’s age at one time or another. I seek nothing more but justice—the truth and nothing but the truth—for I am one face of a thousand. Open the windows and let in the light and expose all you know about these horrific crimes, and I will stop the torment. I can’t give you any guarantees, but it might go a long way in getting you an audience with the powers that be for your application to get into Heaven.

Cartoon used by permission: 302794_Ghost of Epstein past by Dave Granlund, Minnesota

“Hola, hombre despreciable. Soy el fantasma de la misericordia (‘Hello you horrible man. I am the Ghost of Mercy’)!” said the specter, a Hispanic woman who, all in one glance, looked like every immigrant who had been unjustly and cruelly terrorized by ICE. “If you will call off your ICE savages, restore the lives of those they have destroyed, and slavishly work to implement the quote on the Statue of Liberty (‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free’), I will forgive you because doing so would be the embodiment of Christmas—the ultimate Christmas gift—but I can’t make any promises about Heaven.”

“Umph, umph, umph,” said a plus-sized Black woman who was a doppelganger of the actress Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and who represented an angry ass-whoopin’ for all misbehaving old White men down through the ages. “I don’t really know what to say to you, you sorry-ass old excuse of a human bein’. I am the Ghost of Humility, but I’m not feelin’ very humble toward you this evenin’. I just feel like kickin’ your ass from one pillar to the next post for all the mayhem and chaos you done brought upon all the peoples on the Earth who ain’t rich, White, and male.  Ain’t you the one that’s been goin’ around tellin’ folks you the ‘Chosen One’—comparing yo’self to Jesus? Boy, you ought to be ashamed! If I had my druthers, yo’ sorry ass would roast in Hell for all eternity, but I am in no position to judge—I wish I could judge you, but I can’t. Unfortunately, I have to leave that task up to God. But I’ll tell you one thing, if you look at me cross-eyed this evenin’, I swear to God that I’ll pray the Lawd Almighty will strike your fat ass right down to the very bottom of Hell.!”

Cartoon used by permission: 246479_Donald Scrooge by Bart van Leeuwen, PoliticalCartoons.com

Somewhere midway through the presentation, the Spirits transposed Trump’s own children and grandchildren’s faces on the victims of all his cruel acts. Some of the pictures and clips were so graphic that at least one of the President’s Big Macs erupted through his volcanic piehole to splatter itself all over his clothes and feet. When he couldn’t take it anymore, seeing his own family tormented to such horrid degrees, he begged and begged the Spirits to stop and set him free. At that point, the Spirits roughly scooped Trump up and took him to Arlington Cemetery where one could hear his voice on a loop over a loudspeaker screaming: “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with LOSERS, LOSERS, LOSERS….”

Cartoon used by permission: 288071_Trump at Arlington national cemetery by Bart van Leeuwen, PoliticalCartoons.com

Then the Ghost of Justice pointed to one of the gravestones which read:

Cartoon used by permission: 302850_Trump reaction to Rob Reiner’s death. by Sean Delonas, Cagle.com Delonas

“Before I draw nearer to that gravestone,” said a sobbing Trump, “answer me one question. Are you three the end all and be all of my life? All human lives might foreshadow certain ends, but that doesn’t mean things can’t change before they die. Have you no mercy?

The Spirits were immovable and said nothing.

The President began to sob and shake uncontrollably as he groveled at the feet of the Ghost of Justice. “No, Spirit! Oh no, no! Spirit,” he cried, tightly clutching the robed arm of the Ghost of Mercy. “I’m so sorry! Please forgive me! Hear me! I am not the man I was at the start of this night. Your presentation has made me see the error of my ways. I saw my family in the faces of those poor wretches. Come on guys, why show me my gravestone if I am past all hope?”

Cartoon used by permission: 270092_You are the Naughty List by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian

“Good Spirit,” Trump continued, as he fell before the Ghost of Humility, “your nature should intercede for me, and pity me. Assure me that I yet may change these images you have shown me by an altered life?

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with my God. I swear to God, I’ll change if the spirits of all three of you will strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that you teach. Oh, tell me I may erase away the writing on this stone!”

At which point, the spirits suddenly vanished and the 47th President of the United States woke up with the morning sun from the East window baptizing him in a stream of redemptive light as it reflected off a Big Mac wrapper stuck to his left orange cheek. However, he paid the food wrapper no never mind, as he gleefully rang his Chief of Staff.

Cartoon used by permission: 189238_Christmas News by Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune

“Susie, call a meeting of my Cabinet for the day after Christmas and tell them that the agenda will focus on multiple urgent matters to begin with: complete exposure of the Epstein files to the public (let the chips fall where they may), a total reversal of ICE orders, securing lower fair prices for Obamacare, and the cancelling of my social media site (between the junk food and my late-night hate-rants on social media, I’m having some awful nightmares).

“Also, send someone with enough groceries fit for a Mar-a-Lago Christmas dinner to the night janitor’s home. Find out if he has kids and grandkids. If he does, please send a truck load of presents. Grab one of Melania’s Christmas trees and take it to the janitor and his family, and when we return let’s take a look at his salary—let’s increase it to a substantial living wage.  What’s his name, by the way? He never properly introduced himself.

“What, Susie? What’s that you say? The janitor’s name is Micah Sixate? (“That old man was ‘Micah 6:8,’ the place from which the three spirits of my nightmares hailed?”), muttered the President. (“Well, I’ll be damned….”) And with all the joyous release of a prisoner having escaped a date with the guillotine, the President began to laugh, and laugh, and laugh with overwhelming joy!

“MERRY CHRISTMAS, SUSIE!” shouted President Trump into his phone. “May God bless you, my friend, and may God bless ALL THE PEOPLE in the United States of America!”

Cartoon used by permission 291258_Merry Christmas by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian

Want to learn more about the author and her latest book? Check out: http://www.eleanortomczyk.com

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Posted by on December 18, 2025 in Uncategorized

 

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WILL THE REAL GOD OF EASTER PLEASE SHOW HIMSELF?

OPEN LETTER TO THE REAL GOD OF EASTER

Dear Jesus, the Christ—my Lord and Savior:

It’s me, Eleanor!

I’ve been trying to reach you to send you Easter greetings, but every time I send you a letter it comes back marked:

RETURN TO SENDER

ADDRESSEE UNKNOWN

NEW OCCUPANT, WHO DIS?

It just took a brief, horrifying investigation to discover what is wrong—why I can’t seem to reach you at your address. Apparently, your abode of love and compassion has been obfuscated by one Donald J. Trump and his MAGA religion of cruelty and lies. I don’t know if you are aware, but this dude is trying to become the Messiah of Christianity and the King of the world.

To make things worse, Donald “Jesus” Trump has been ushered into place by many of your Christians who see a way to grab hold of power supposedly in your name, but it’s actually in their likeness of dominance, greed, power, and utmost control. They have kicked your compassion and empathy for the poor and the immigrant to the curb, and they have crushed any sense of truthfulness to get their own way. In fact, they push forth a lie when the truth would be more convenient. They’ve co-opted your character and made it a political tool of hate.

Cartoon used by permission: 292299_MAGA Jesus Cures by Pat Byrnes, PoliticalCartoons.com

All this to say: WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO DO SOMETHING?! Don’t you care that your street cred is being greatly tarnished and possibly abolished? I don’t want to tell you how you should be running things, but as I meditate on what Easter means to me, I’m reminded that your love for me and all humans caused you to sacrifice your life on a cross so that we might live free. Although I don’t fully understand why such a sacrifice was needed, I do know that what the idol Donald “Jesus” Trump is flaunting, ain’t it! And yet…so many of your followers—those claiming to be Christians and sporting huge crosses around their necks and on their lapels to prove their loyalty to you—are buying it hook, line, and sinker.

Cartoon used by permission: 283958_Christen Dumb by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian

Anyway, I’m trying to reach you this Easter to let you know that those of us that follow the true Messiah—Jesus, of Nazareth—the God of love, mercy, compassion, truth, humility, and forgiveness are still loyal to you but we’re freaking out! Why are you allowing Trump to get away with this madness of blaspheming your character? I’m reminded that nothing is new in history, of course. We’ve been here before when your White Christians have sold you down the river for their own greed and lust for power. Remember the Civil War? Most White Christians had convinced themselves that you approved of slavery and that their Black brothers and sisters were only 2/5ths human and not deserving of freedom, self-rule, education, the pursuit of happiness, or respect.

Cartoon used by permission: 294079_MAGA Heaven by Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune, UT

May I be so bold as to remind you my Lord and Savior about something I read recently from a German historian that nothing exemplifies the selling of one’s soul like the German churches in the 30’s and 40s. By the time the Allies destroyed the Nazis, most of the German churches had aligned themselves with Hitler (that other demon who tried to steal your glory) and his government of hate and lies; Swastika flags draped their churches, and the Nazis had reinvented you as an Arnold Schwarzenegger-type, Aryan body builder who would eradicate all the Jews— “the others”. You must have been overcome with fury whenever a child was baptized in the German churches during Hitler’s reign of terror when the minister anointed the baby with the “blessing”: “May this child grow up to honor the glory of our Lord and our Fuhrer.”

Cartoon used by permission: 292709_MAGA Nation by Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune, UT

In my despair, I would suggest that you not even bother to show up this Easter, but then I can’t shake the definition of Easter:

Then I remember that no sin or evil which equals death in the end has ever withstood your resurrection. American Slavery did not stand in your name and crush my people, Apartheid did not triumph in your name and overcome the Black South Africans, and Nazism—murderous as it was—did not destroy the Jews in your name. Your resurrection—your victory over death—destroyed all these anti-Christs. And so, shall it be this time around…. (I do believe, I do believe; help my unbelief, dear God!)—Love, Eleanor

Cartoon used by permission: 294854_HAPPY EASTER by Marian Kamensky, Austria

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

HE IS RISEN!

HE IS RISEN, INDEED!

Cartoon used by permission: 283798_Easter Promise by Dave Granlund, PoliticalCartoons.com

***

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Posted by on April 19, 2025 in Uncategorized

 

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HOPE AND JOY ARE MAKING A COMEBACK

***

GOOD MOOORNNNING, LORD JESUS!

Thank you for this glorious day! I’ve been watching the Democratic National Convention all week, and I could have sworn I saw you in the audience groovin’ out to DJ Cassady’s perfectly curated roll call playlist! I could tell you were trying to keep a low profile, but the hope and joy exploding in the room was clearly a couple of your signature moves, and I know from experience that where there is hope and joy, you can’t be far off.

Anyway, the DNC is over and after walking on newfound clouds of hope and joy, I thought I’d invite you to go on a walk with me this morning for a few shout-outs of praise to you for such a glorious week and to tell you all about my worries for the future.

CARTOON USED BY PERMISSION: 287530_What’s wrong with their faces by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian

Lord Jesus, you know how I do. First, I walk 5,000 steps of my daily 10,000 step goal giving you shout-outs of praise for all the beautiful things I see in nature on the walking trail and all the blessings in my life. Then I take a load off my feet and rest a spell on a park bench dedicated to the dead wife of an old man that I’ll never know. However, I am warmed by the love he had for his lifetime partner as I rest on her park bench and gaze at the lovely magnolia tree that he planted in her honor.Then I start walking again for 2,500 steps—still overwhelmed with how much you answered my prayers during the Democratic National Convention this past week. As I start to dwell on the speeches (especially from some of Trump’s former employees and former Republicans) citing how—behind closed doors—Trump called his supporters “basement dwellers” and “disgusting people,” I saw the themes of my new book (House of Oz Undone) realized as the true character of Trump was exposed by those who once believed in him, and the scales finally fell from their eyes.

Lord Jesus, after 7,500 steps, I need to sit my sorry-behind down again—me and my bamboo walking stick that my husband got me to keep my steps steady and not face-plant on this glorious walking path at 76 years old (wouldn’t that be somethin’?).

As you know, this bench is my favorite spot to stop during my morning walks because it overlooks a glorious pond with geese, ducks, and storks feeding and playing. If ever I sense your presence, it is here in this holy place—the closest thing I come to attending church these days. It is also here that I tell you all about my troubles and worries. Today, I am worried that in spite of the triumphant week of hope and joy you gave us, that Trump’s cheating, lies, manipulation of the ballots and his militant whipping up of the MAGA/Christian Dominionists/Project 2025’ers will cause us to still lose the race to save our democracy and our country. Please help us…please add to our hope and joy enough votes that, come election day, it will be a blow-out for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and no evil will prevail against them. Amen…amen!

CARTOON USED BY PERMISSION: 287441_US Presidential race by Paresh Nath, U.T. Independent, India

Well, Lord Jesus, I have the final 2,500 steps to finish before I arrive back home. I must say that I’m feeling pretty good, and I am not as panicked anymore—not like I was a couple of months ago when my hair was on fire! (Why do I have the sneaky suspicion that this was your plan all along: Expose Donald Trump as the hateful, lying, evil Emperor with No Clothes and continue to move America forward—in spite of our shortcomings—by electing the first woman president of color in our history, supported by a truly good man with godly character draped in your mantle of hope and joy instead of the MAGA banner of fear, hate, exclusion, and authoritarianism.) As I complete my 10,000 steps (feeling a bit smug that the old girl’s still got it!), I want to thank you for helping me lend my voice through House of Oz Undone (a cautionary tale) to be one of the many clarion calls to wake people up to your beacon of hope and joy during this monumental season.  See you tomorrow morning! I love you, Lord!

CARTOON USE BY PERMISSION: 287872_No More Name Game by Christopher Weyant, The Boston Globe, MA

“House of Oz Undone is a brilliant venture through today’s societal themes. Setting out to find their home, heart, brain, and courage, a group of unlikely friends dissects the political and religious chaos they encounter traveling down the Yellow Brick Road. Funny, creative, and a little crazy, this book will have readers in hysterics.” —Kathryn Dare, San Francisco Book Review

Eleanor Tomczyk is a memoirist and humorist blogger renowned for her engagingly funny musings as an ex-Evangelical Conservative Christian (emphasis on the “ex”) and African-American Baby Boomer. Embarking on a new career as a storyteller at 60, she draws on her experiences in White Conservative churches. Now in her mid-70s and a wife, mother, and grandmother, Tomczyk has authored books such as Monsters’ Throwdown, Fleeing Oz, The Fetus Chronicles: Podcasts to My Fetus-self, and House of Oz Undone: A Cautionary Tale. She also runs a weekly humorous political blog titled “How the Hell Did I End Up Here?” Her multifaceted career also spans roles as a singer, actress, motivational speaker, and award-winning voice-over artist.

 
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Posted by on August 24, 2024 in Uncategorized

 

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DEAR SANTA—IT’S ME, ELEANOR—HELP!

“SANTA BABY,” song reworked and truncated to express my holiday angst at a Higher Being who seems to be missing in action on the Earth because “my arms are too short to box with God” about my anxiety over His seemingly MIA status. (Straight up: my apologies to God—forgive my unbelief, My Savior—and Philip Springer, the song writer.)

Cartoon used by permission: 280703_Everyone has been naughty by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian
Cartoon used by permission: 280851_Decreasing U.S. support for war in Ukraine by Bart van Leeuwen, PoliticalCartoons.com
Cartoon used by permission: 280664_A Gift to Democracy by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian
Cartoon used by permission: 280894_Trump’s complete immunity claim by John Cole, Tennessee  Lookout, TennesseeLookout.com

*Songwriters: Philip Springer / Joan Javits

Cartoon used by permission: 280532_It only seems that way by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian

Eleanor Tomczyk is an author and a satirist who is an award-winning voice-over performer.  In 2011, she created the blog, “How the Hell Did I End Up Here” which features mostly satirical posts that have thousands of readers around the world—although she was recently banned in Pakistan (for real!).  Tomczyk’s three books were featured in a recent book festival: “Monsters’ Throwdown,” “Fleeing Oz,” and “The Fetus Chronicles—Podcasts to my Miseducated Self.”  Currently in her 70s and living life like it is freakin’ golden, she is a consummate storyteller and much sought-after motivational speaker.  If you don’t believe me, just ask her!

Cartoon used by permission: 270109_1290_Re-Post Fragile Globe by Dave Granlund, PoliticalCartoons.com

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links of the author’s writing may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Eleanor Tomczyk and “How the Hell Did I End Up Here?” with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. However, the cartoons are under the governance of CagleCartoons.com and cannot be replicated.

 
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Posted by on December 17, 2023 in Uncategorized

 

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EASTER IS SO ‘WOKE,’ Y’ALL!

The first time I heard the term “woke” used in a pejorative manner was a year or so ago when I attended a dinner party as the only Black person on the guest list.  Up until that point, I thought “woke” meant “hip” and “open-minded,” which I clearly consider myself to be even at the age of 74 and counting.

All the dinner attendees were over 70 years old, well-educated, mostly Republican, supposedly Christian as to their choice of religion, and well-to-do. A White man boastfully introduced himself during the cocktail hour to my husband (who is White) in the following manner: “I’m retired Superior Court Judge________, and I’m NOT WOKE!” The statement came out of nowhere—apropos to nothing—as if to say: “Aren’t we having lovely weather this week, and oh, by the way, I’m Judge A-hole, and ‘I’m not woke!’”  I was not privy to the conversation and didn’t hear about it from my husband until after we returned home. Probably a good thing—no telling how a throwdown between a Black 74-year-old woman who takes no prisoners and a privileged self-serving, racist White man might have upended an innocuous neighborhood dinner party.

“When Republicans use the word ‘woke,’ it’s a deliberate bit of obfuscation, a way to signal bigotry to their fellow travelers while pretending it’s something else to those who call them out for it. But it’s also pretty hard to ignore the bullhorn levels of racism that are often embedded in complaints about “woke” culture. When Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., complains that it’s “woke” to let Black women sing at the Super Bowl, for example, the only rational conclusion is that it’s their skin color that offends her.”—How a Far-Right Think Tank Made Everything Woke by AMANDA MARCOTTE/Salon

Cartoon used by permission: 272329_Get That Man A Mirror by Christopher Weyant, CagleCartoons.com

I had forgotten about that very “unwoke” statement by the retired judge until recently when I dreamt of a room full of people who appeared to be attending a cocktail party outside the gates of Heaven. They were all wearing crosses around their necks or on their lapels, but judging by their costuming they all appeared to be from various times and places in history.

The attendees were adamantly insisting to one another that there must have been some mistake as to why they had been invited to this particular party but not allowed to cross over into the inner sanctum of Heaven.  They were demanding an explanation from anyone who would listen and to no one in particular.  Although I can’t remember most of the conversations articulated by the thousands of the party-goers now that I’m awake, I do remember a select few that had a profound effect on me. Below is the recreation of those conversations. The statements in quotes can be confirmed in history books and/or recent news articles as to actual statements made by the noted party attendees.

TRANSCRIBED CONVERSATION BETWEEN BLOGGER AND ATTENDEES AT DREAM PARTY

ME:  Excuse me, Officer. I got lost wandering around the building looking for the Office of Easter Explanation. I’m hosting an Easter party for aliens who have just landed. They don’t speak much English, so I thought I’d school them on the meaning of Easter in between the ham and the key lime pie at Easter dinner. Given the circumstances, the meaning needs to be very simplistic. However, I seem to be lost. What is this room?

GUARD:  You couldn’t be more lost than if you were a snowball at the equator, Lady! This is the waiting room to decide whether these people who think they are going to Heaven—who dedicated their lives to “serving Jesus”will actually end up in Hell. What’s that old Negro spiritual: ‘Everybody talkin’ ‘bout Heaven ain’t going there?’ I’m an angel, and this is the room of the “Anti-woke” or what my team likes to call: the room of the “Anti-Christ.”  The people you see here were invited to this party because of the damage they did during their time on Earth in the name of the resurrected Christ. In some form or another they took great pride in “not being woke” while claiming to love Jesus. I personally don’t get it, since “woke” is merely the past tense of “wake.” He woke up—he is awake—you get my gist! Seems like that would be a good thing. 

Cartoon used by permission: 271931_Too Woke by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian

ME:  Well, no disrespect, Ms. Angel, but from the snippets of conversation I’m hearing, that’s not quite the definition of the “woke” these people are misusing. They co-opted the term. The word “woke” is a political term derived from African-American Vernacular English* meaning “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination”.

GUARD:   Hum, you don’t say…

ME:  Yep, it’s not a new term.  It was derived from the blues musician Huddie Ledbelly (best known as “Lead Belly”) in 1931 from his protest song about the Scottsboro Boys.  They were nine Black teenagers falsely accused of raping two White women on a train (the women made up the story).  Lead Belly was reported to have said, “I made this song about down there [the Jim Crow South]. So, I advise everybody: be a little careful—best stay woke, keep their eyes open.” **

GUARD:  Son-of-a-gun… Anyway, they better get the correct definition ASAP because this is their last chance to wake up before they do a slip-n-slide into Hell. Feel free to take a stroll around the room and engage in some of the conversations, why don’t you? You’ll see what I mean. Maybe you’ll even find the definition of Easter.

As I began to meander, various voices called out to introduce themselves to me since I appeared to be the new kid on the block. I listened as best I could, seeking first to understand before I tried to be understood. As I made the promenade around the room, I approached a man in flowing gowns from the 16th Century.

ME:  Hello, my name is Eleanor the Blogger. Who are you?

MAN 1: Hello, I’m Martin Luther from 1533. I’m responsible for the Reformation. I overheard your conversation with the Guard which was most fascinating. I must confess that I was “not woke” during my time, and I kind of regret it now.  I thought my “Ninety-five Theses,” which I posted on the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany, should have paved the way for the Jews to become Lutherans. When that didn’t happen, I’ve got to confess that it thoroughly pissed me off.  Consequently, I left final written instructions in my diaries as to what I proposed should be the demise of the Jews, and I quote: ‘First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians…’

ME:  What the fuck, Dude! I thought you loved Jesus! Your “anti-wokeness” regarding the Jews’ right to worship their own God unleashed a torrent of hatred that became the bedrock of the German/Lutheran Zeitgeist.

MAN 2:  Heil Hitler, Herr Luther. I’m a clergyman from WWII representing at least 20 European countries that tried to eradicate the Jews.  I’m here to tell you that because of you we “were definitely not woke” to the Jews’ right to life, and we have you to thank. By 1945 we managed to kill most European Jews—two out of every three to be exact—all in the name of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior.

Fearing I might start to vomit due to the horror of what I was hearing I ran from the Nazi Christian sympathizers and crashed into an ex-American president…

NIXON:  I overheard what you said, young lady.  I thought I was ‘woke’ about the Jews, the Blacks, and the Mexicans during my tenure, but given your definition about ‘woke’ I suppose you’re going to tell me that I missed the boat. I disagree, wholeheartedly. I am a Christian—led to the Lord by my best friend who was the Rev. Billy Graham, Jr.  I don’t have a racist bone in my body. Take that and stuff it up your woke ass!

ME:  Are you kidding me, Mr. Crook?  Do you remember what you said about my people when you didn’t know your taped conversations would ever see the light of day?  You said, ‘I have the greatest affection for [blacks], but I know they’re not going to make it for 500 years. They aren’t. You know it, too. The Mexicans are a different cup of tea. They have a heritage. At the present time they steal, they’re dishonest, but they do have some concept of family life. They don’t live like a bunch of dogs, which the Negroes do live like.’

You Jerk! You screwed Black folks’ civil rights into the ground. But yet we still rise! BTW A-hole, our 44th President was a Black man.

MAN 3:  Couldn’t help but overhear your argument with the President. Did you say a Black man became President? Well, I’ll be damned. Roll me over, and call me shorty.  I’m Captain Auld, one of Frederick Douglas’ masters from slavery time. I’m a Christian and I think my slaves were lower than my animals and were to be treated as such.  Back in the day, I went to a fabulous Holy Spirit-filled revival and got myself born-again, again! Yes, I did—praise Jesus’ name—glory hallelujah! But I never “got woke” because my critics say I returned to my plantation after that Holy Ghost touch from God a lot meaner and more hateful than I ever was. They say I mercilessly beat women slaves to death while I quoted Bible verses. I was only fulfilling the will of God as my divine slave owner right.

ME:  I remember you from Frederick Douglas’ Autobiography!  Mr. Douglas said that, ‘It [your salvation] neither made him more humane to his slaves, nor to emancipate them…it made him more cruel and hateful in all his ways…but after his conversion, he found religious sanction and support for his slave-holding cruelty.’

AULD:  Tis true! I was definitely “anti-woke” then, but I did become “woke” on my deathbed. I even asked Douglas to forgive me—’told him I would have run away just like he did if I’d been in his shoes ‘cause he turned out to be the smartest man I ever knew’. Does that count?

ME:  Too late, Slaveholder. The damage you did to Frederick Douglas’ spirit, soul, and body, and to the countless other slaves you tortured can’t be clawed back.

Cartoon used by permission: 272852_Where Woke Dies by Bill Day, FloridaPolitics.com

At this point, I had heard enough, and I ran toward the exit.  But I didn’t escape before hearing Congresswoman Lauren Boebert scream after me that she would never be “woke” about guns because as a Christian she believed if Jesus had had an AR-15, he wouldn’t have been crucified.

As I exited the room, Governor Ron DeSantis yelled in my direction, ‘FLORIDA IS WHERE WOKE GOES TO DIE! you BLM Coastal Elite!’

Cartoon used by permission: 266362_Desantis Freedom From Woke by Ed Wexler, CagleCartoons.com

ELEANOR’S SELAH ABOUT EASTER

Do you know what I discovered when I awoke from my dream?  If I had to explain the meaning of Easter to an alien who didn’t speak much English, I would tell them that the true meaning of Easter is “being woke.” Jesus’ sacrificial love for all mankind, the joy and abundance His truths were supposed to provide to all people regardless of race, creed, gender or ethnicity, and His peace which passes all understanding—all of it—was meant to deliver us from death (loneliness, poverty, enslavement, inequality, hopelessness, abuse, brutality, cruelty, injustice, immorality, etc.).  In turn, throughout history, those who claimed to be Jesus’ followers were supposed to live that resurrection life of Easter in such a way that the Earth and its people would thrive with the goodness of God oozing from our Christian pores.  But have you noticed, anytime historical Christians have been asleep to the truth of who Jesus really is, what He was crucified for, and why His resurrection on Easter is so precious, evil of overwhelming proportions have inflicted the Earth, and to that end I believe Jesus wept.

So, here’s my rallying cry this Easter:  CHRISTIANS, PLEASE WAKE UP!  If you claim to be born-again, pro-life, sport a cross around your neck or on your lapels, call yourself a Believer, go to church, wear a bracelet that says: WWJD? (what would Jesus do?), quote Bible verses, and sing praise and worship songs, then give yourselves an Easter present by waking up to the true meaning of the season. Once again, the Earth (especially America) is perched on the precipice of history where our actions as Christians will either bring eons of suffering upon the globe or our “awakeness” will turn the corner of mayhem, destruction, and lies, and point the way to everlasting life.

HAVE A BLESSED EASTER EVERYONE!

LET’S GET WOKE!

Cartoon used by permission: 194302_Easter by Bob Englehart, Middletown, CT

*AAVE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Vernacular_English

**ADEPTALES: https://adeptales.com/2021/03/war-on-woke/

Eleanor Tomczyk is an author and a satirist who is an award-winning voice-over performer.  In 2011, she created the blog, “How the Hell Did I End Up Here” which features mostly satirical posts that have thousands of readers around the world—although she was recently banned in Pakistan (for real!).  Tomczyk’s three books were featured in a recent book festival: “Monsters’ Throwdown,” “Fleeing Oz,” and “The Fetus Chronicles—Podcasts to my Miseducated Self.”  Currently in her 70s and living life like it is freakin’ golden, she is a consummate storyteller and much sought-after motivational speaker.  If you don’t believe me, just ask her!

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links of the author’s writing may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Eleanor Tomczyk and “How the Hell Did I End Up Here?” with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. However, the cartoons are under the governance of CagleCartoons.com and cannot be replicated.

Cartoon used by permission: 261846_World Easter Egg cracks by Dave Granlund, PoliticalCartoons.com

 
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Posted by on April 6, 2023 in Uncategorized

 

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JESUS, GOD OF EASTER, HELP!

As you might imagine, given the events of this week, I am sitting Shiva with the rest of my liberal friends—or should I say, sitting Shiva with anybody who has a brain, a conscious, a heart, a soul, or eyes and ears.  According to Wikipedia, Shiva means “seven,” and “sitting Shiva” is described as: “the week-long mourning period in Judaism for first-degree relatives.”  In this case, my first-degree relatives are my country’s morality, constitution, and soul, and my religion’s core Truth.  I know I’m supposed to accept Barr’s assessment of the Mueller report and move on, but I just can’t.  In the words of George Conway (conservative lawyer and the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway —talk about irony):

“TRUMP IS GUILTY—OF BEING UNFIT FOR OFFICE”

Cartoon used by permission: Milt Priggee, Oak Harbor, WA/Cagle Cartoons

The aftermath of Barr’s summary has been brutal against anyone who has opposed Trump—led by the mean-spirited bully Trump himself, as he takes his victory lap in the end zone.  Every time I hear him attacking someone who has uncovered his lies or stood up to his bullying, all I can do is pray that the God of Easter rescues us from this cretin—SOON.  Was it wrong to hope the Mueller Report would be an answer to that prayer of obvious corruption exposed?  And why did William Barr give us an interpretation of a potentially 300-plus page report rather than the report itself?  What is Barr hiding?  Instead, the White Right-Wing Christians who believe Trump was sent by God are hoarse from crowing Barr’s summation that God has protected their anointed one, and it makes me sick to my stomach—so sick, it sent me into intercessory prayer.  Below is my most recent prayer—prayed while sitting in sackcloth and ashes cataloged under the title: If Ever There was a God, Now is the Time to Show Up (Again).

Cartoon used by permission: Ed Wexler, PoliticalCartoons.com/Cagle Cartoons

DEAR GOD:

How are you?  The last time we spoke, I was praying for healing of a horrible respiratory disease, spring to arrive (sooner than later), and for the Mueller Report to be released, putting a stop to our current reign of terror. I’m very grateful that you completely healed my snot-generating, five-foot chubby-ass body, that spring has finally sprung revealing that not all my plants died over the winter (thank you very much), and the Mueller Report was finally released—kind of.

It looks like I needed to be a bit more specific in my prayers regarding the Mueller Report.  I don’t mean to be ungrateful, but I thought we had an understanding that the report would be released in its entirety and reveal the complete corruption of Donald J. Trump in such a way that his followers would flee in horror—especially the ones who claim to be your followers.  But instead of them repenting in sackcloth and ashes for propping up this egregious sack of sin, they are joining in his revenge victory lap claiming the Bible verse (Psalm 105:15) on Trump’s behalf:  “Don’t touch my chosen leaders or harm my prophets! “Just the other day I came across this billboard that was once posted near St. Louis, Missouri from a bunch of your Trump-loving Christian followers equating him with you, Jesus:

A billboard along route I-70 near St. Louis, Missouri in Nov. 2018

(OPEN LETTER TO GOD, CONT.)

I don’t know how I missed this billboard when it first appeared, but my God, doesn’t this just burn your cookies?  Seems as if that alone would cause you to make a personal appearance just to set the record straight.  Now, how does the Bible verse John 1:14 read again? 

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

(The billboard was removed in 2018, but only after a great deal of hysteria from your “sane” peeps who rallied to confront this blasphemous stupidity.)

Insane, right?!

Cartoon used by permission: Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune, UT/Cagle Cartoons

(OPEN LETTER TO GOD, CONT.)

With all due respect, knowing what you must know, what’s up with letting Trump slide by on the Mueller Report and practically getting away with murder?  You of all deities know that he’s guilty.  He’s like a giant toddler, and he won’t stop until he’s caught red-handed. He needs a giant ass-kicking by you since I am now convinced that Trump was right—he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose his supporters—especially his Christian supporters because they believe you sent Trump to save America.

Not that I need to give you any parenting advice, but do you recall the “Great Toddler Candy Heist of 87” that was perpetrated by one of my children (no need to name names—you know who Baby-girl is)?  Bear with me here.

As you recall, in the beginning, I tried to raise my children in a sugar-free environment. However, one of my kids came to Earth dreaming of lollipops. If upon her arrival the Devil had presented himself to her and said, “I’ll give you all the candy in the world in exchange for your soul, your sister’s soul, and both your parents’ souls,” she would have said, “In a hot baby-poop minute—where do I stamp my baby paw print?”   My child had ways of getting candy that I knew not of.  All I know is that the minute I turned my back on her (with the specific instructions: “Don’t give this child any candy!”) and returned to pick her up from babysitters, Sunday school providers, mother-in-law, or friends’ homes, I’d find candy wrappers stuffed in her diapers and witness the vestiges of a tummy ache all over my new blouses when I snuggled with her.  But no one could ever catch her actually procuring and eating the sweets.  No matter how many times I asked her if she’d eaten candy and where she’d gotten it from, she’d look me straight in the eyes and lie through her cute little four-year-old baby teeth.  (I think I might have even tossed out a prayer or two to you to help me catch that little barbarian in her lies at one time or another.)

Internet Meme

One day, I think you answered my prayers.  I took said candy thief and her sister with me to a very brief business meeting. I noticed as we passed by a table in the lobby by the receptionist’s desk that a rather large bowl of grape Jolly Ranchers was prominently displayed on our way to the elevators.  Both girls asked if they could have some, but I told them “no,” because I was afraid it would spoil their lunch.

After the meeting was over, I strapped the kids into their respective car seats and proceeded back home for lunch.  About five minutes into the drive, I smelled a pungent grapey odor coming from the back seat.  In fact, the odor was overwhelming, as if someone had flooded the car with Welch’s Grape Juice. It was apparent that one of the kids had stolen candy from the office candy dish.  As I whipped my head around like a cobra to seek out the culprit, I demanded to know who was sucking on a Jolly Rancher. My older daughter said, “Not I, said the cat.” When I turned to Baby-girl, she violently shook her head in denial but refused to open her mouth.  Had I not pulled over to the side of the road, I would not have caught her in the act.  But as I stopped the car and looked into the back seat at my girls, streams of purple ooze poured out of Baby-girl’s mouth.  Apparently, she had stolen as many Jolly Ranchers as her little fat fingers could handle and squirrelled them away in her jumpsuit pockets.  My toddler thief had stuffed not one, not two, not three, but at least four grape Jolly Ranchers into her tiny toddler mouth which couldn’t contain the saliva overflow. Caught dead to rights, even as I asked Baby-girl if she had Jolly Ranchers in her mouth, she continued to shake her head in fierce denial while purple saliva stormed from both sides of her mouth as if she were an overheated Saint Bernard and consequently slimed both her sister and me in purple ooze.

Lord, the point of this story is that I nipped that little rascal’s lyin’ and stealin’ in the bud by catching her in the act, and today she is a fine upstanding citizen. I thought you were probably proud of me for that bit of parenting stealth, if the truth be known.So here’s the word: you created Donald Trump.  Essentially, you’re his first parent.  I don’t mean to be impertinent, but why didn’t you let the Mueller Report expose him in all his ill-gotten slime?  Instead, he has gotten away with his crimes (again!) and has become an even bigger jerk than ever—claiming to be a martyr on the level of messiahhood, creating a revenge list, and tormenting the sick, the poor, and anybody that crosses him.


Cartoon used by permission: Milt Priggee, Oak Harbor, WA/Cagle Cartoons

(OPEN LETTER TO GOD, CONT.)

Lord Jesus, I know you know everything none of us know and in due time, all will be revealed, and we’ll all know the truth whether we want to accept it or not. It’s just that William Barr’s assessment was not the truth.  It may have “technically” helped Trump escape collusion, but he’s got the stain of being a horrible human being in every fiber of his being and he’s sliming us all with his purple-tainted sins of lying and corruption.   

Anyway, see you on Easter.  I could use some hope and proof that you’re in control of this mess. Just sayin’. In the meantime, I’ll keep praying (like a mantra) in the words of Leslie Jones’ recent universal tweet:  #LORDHELPUSPLEASE


Cartoon used by permission: David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Star Tucson, AZ/Cagle Cartoons

***

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR?  Check out her website at www.eleanortomczyk.com

THE AUTHOR’S LATEST BOOKS:  Monsters’ Throwdown, Fleeing Oz, The Fetus Chronicles on sale now at Amazon!

***

REFERENCE

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/03/27/michael-avenattis-downfall-would-be-great-thing-democrats/?utm_term=.b45c5010c518

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-conway-trump-is-guilty–of-being-unfit-for-office/2019/03/26/0b5f851e-4ffd-11e9-88a1-ed346f0ec94f_story.html?utm_term=.b59e095fe99e

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/27/politics/cnn-poll-mueller-reaction-exoneration/index.html

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2018/11/05/we-fixed-that-appalling-trump-billboard-just-outside-st-louis-for-you

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Eleanor Tomczyk and “How the Hell Did I End Up Here?” with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 
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Posted by on March 29, 2019 in Uncategorized

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

JESUS, COME BACK!

Do you know what I discovered this week?  Easter and April Fool’s Day fall on the same date this year.  What could possibly go wrong that hasn’t already gone wrong in these here United States?

Easter and April Fools John Darkow Inside Columbia

Cartoon used by permission: John Darkow, Inside, Columbia

I’m actually going to go to church on Easter.  I know!  Can you believe it?  Haven’t been in years.  I left my religion some time ago (actually, my religion left me!), and, although I never plan to permanently return to a religious corporate structure again, our messed up world—especially our messed up country—has me in need of communion and a corporate hug from God.

I need to confess that I’ve never understood why Jesus didn’t set the world straight the first time he came around.  If he wanted us to live a certain way—love thy neighbor and all that—why didn’t he just make it so? Isn’t he all powerful?  Hadn’t the world committed enough wars, mayhem, and terror BC to give him a gist of the character of mankind that would inhabit the world in AD?  We didn’t get any better once he left, we just got more efficient at torturing and killing each other.  Shouldn’t he have known that, being God and all?

Jesus Come Back Bob Englehart Middletown CT

Cartoon used by permission: Bob Englehart, Middletown, CT

I don’t even know why I expect to be consoled by going to church on Easter because one of the reasons we have the President that we do and we’re in the mess that we are in is because Conservative Evangelical Christians sold their souls to the Devil in exchange for 30 coins of silver.

Easter Bunny: March 29, 2018

Cartoon used by permission: Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News, NY

But I’ll remedy that and go to a Black Baptist church.  Not that they’ve got a corner on the righteousness market, but at least I won’t have to put up with any racism which I seemed to have run into head-long in my community recently while accidentally encountering a bunch of Born-Again/Fox News loving, Trump Luddites masquerading as a “history” club, who feel that it is okay to have their own “alternative facts” with an agenda to mold the world into their racist image (Hillary was right: some of them really are quite deplorable when you get up close and personal).  Besides, I’m keeping count, and the White Evangelical pastors who support Trump (laid hands on him and prayed for God’s anointing) far outnumber the Black Evangelicals 20 to 1.  I’m also keeping count of the White Evangelical preachers who are biting the dust for grabbing women by the “you know what” (it’s Holy week so I need to keep this clean) and they are dropping like flies (must read article referenced below*).  Unlike Trump, they don’t seem to be able to get away with their sexual sins as easily as he can.

Trump Knows Easter Bunny Rick McKee The Augusta Chronicle GA

Cartoon used by permission: Rick McKee, The Augusta Chronicle, GA

I think the straw that broke the camel’s back was when the likes of Laura Ingraham and the NRA smeared the Parkland School shooting survivors with lies about their character and mocked them on Twitter.  I was so angry that if I owned a gun I would have seriously considered using it against those Neanderthals.  Fortunately, I don’t own a gun for just that reason:  crazy mad can happen to the most mild-mannered person if rubbed the wrong way.

Anyway, I don’t like the state of my heart.  It has grown dark with fear, anger, and resentment.  (My mother always said, “Don’t wrestle with pigs; you’ll get dirty, but the pigs will love it!”)  So I’m getting up out of the slop and dragging my sorry-ass to church before it is too late for my soul.

run-bitch meme

Courtesy of askideas.com

Who knows:  maybe Jesus will show up and stay for good this time.

***

ELEANOR’S SELAH (“AHA” MOMENT) ABOUT RESURRECTION

I am discovering that there is no belief in a resurrection without wrestling with doubt.  Is Jesus real or isn’t he?  Did he die as some cosmic sacrificial lamb or didn’t he?  And on the third day, when the tomb door was rolled away, was he there or wasn’t he?  If he can do that, then why doesn’t he save us from ourselves?

And then I remember that he has.

Resurrection means hope and new beginnings, and like spring, when one is in the midst of winter, it is difficult to imagine that spring, hope, and new life will ever conquer the seemingly permanent deadliness of winter.  But I believe in the resurrection of Christ (help thou, my unbelief, oh God when I fail to believe), because it is my only hope for our poor sweet world and my sanity.

HAPPY EASTER AND HAPPY PESACH EVERYONE!

OUR WORLD SURE NEEDS THE GRACE OF BOTH.

Broken World Dave Granlund Minnesota

Cartoon used by permission: Dave Granlund, Minnesota

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES ABOUT EASTER RESURRECTION

“The Resurrection miracle is nothing to you and me if it is only an event of eighteen centuries bygone. Unless we can live the immortal life – unless we can receive God to his own home in these hearts of ours – the texts are nothing to us unless these daily lives illustrate them.”—Edward Everett Hale

“It seems as if, for every dragon head that is lopped off, two more terrible appear. Seems so. But in truth, Life is gaining all the while. Brute force, such power as there seems to be in things, cannot stand against ideas which are eternal.”—Edward Everett Hale

All quotes courtesy of http://www.brainyquotes.com

I AM Dave Granlund Minnesota

Cartoon used by permission: Dave Granlund, Minnesota

HE IS RISEN!  HE IS RISEN INDEED!

***

THE AUTHOR’S LATEST BOOK:  “The Fetus Chronicles:  Podcasts From my Miseducated Self” is on sale now at Amazon!

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR?  Check out her website at www.eleanortomczyk.com

 WANT TO HEAR THE AUTHOR’S LATEST INTERVIEW?  Check out the podcast interview with Leo Brown: http://breadboxmedia.podbean.com/e/what-if-it-is-true-can-you-find-faith-in-darkness/

 REFERENCES

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/christians-offer-trump-cheap-grace/2018/03/27/9e7f5034-31c9-11e8-8bdd-cdb33a5eef83_story.html?utm_term=.4e89b81ca6a3

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/03/27/more-white-evangelicals-believe-stormy-daniels-and-that-could-have-some-long-term-implications/?utm_term=.69ee97c45fda

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/03/29/laura-ingraham-savaged-for-taunting-parkland-activist-over-college-rejections/?utm_term=.e8fbcb09421b

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/kirbyjon-caldwell-famed-houston-megachurch-pastor-sold-millions-in-worthless-bonds-feds-charge/ar-AAvhlsf?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=UE13DHP

*https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/03/30/in-an-age-of-trump-and-stormy-daniels-evangelical-leaders-face-sex-scandals-of-their-own/?utm_term=.9ddc4fa87a96 *

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Eleanor Tomczyk and “How the Hell Did I End Up Here?” with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 
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Posted by on March 30, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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COSMIC HOPE

The Christmas Story

Do you know what I discovered last week?  Black women saved Alabama’s soul and, ultimately, America’s with the trouncing of Roy Moore—that racist, pervert, accused pedophile, and abomination to the name of Christianity who tried to railroad his way into the U.S. Senate.  You’re welcome, America!  Even though I don’t live in Alabama, I am a Black woman, an Evangelical (until they do something that makes me throw up in my mouth), and a person who is used to seeing miracles.   I know it seems hard to believe, but not every Christian in America has sold his or her soul to the Devil Trump and his minions—just enough of them have done so to make the rest of us occasionally wonder if there really is a God.  So there you have it:  God showed up in Alabama through Black women, therefore, thus did hope re-surge in me for the times ahead.  All is not lost, my Peeps.

Evangelicals an Moore in Hell Steve Sack The Minneapolis Star Tribune

Cartoon used by permission: Steve Sack, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

As I meditated on that unexpected burst of hope that came out of the Doug Jones win in Alabama, I felt this explosion of happiness and joy in my soul which got me to thinking about Christmas.  (Of course, I was decorating the Christmas tree at the time, sipping champagne, and singing “Jingle Bells” at the top of my lungs, so thinking about Christmas might not have been a huge stretch of the imagination.)  Contrary to what Fox News, paranoid White Evangelicals, and Trump would have you believe, there is no war on Christmas (trust me).  Nobody cares if you say Merry Christmas or Happy Everything, just so long as you say it with love and good intentions.  We’ve been bombarded with Christmas this and that here, there, and everywhere since the day before Halloween.  Nobody in America has a problem saying “Merry Christmas”—just a problem living it.  Christmas has been “lost in translation” and left on the cutting room floor in our country for a very long time.

Star Wars FB Dave Granlund Politicalcartoons com

Cartoon used by permission: Dave Granlund, Politicalcartoons.com

This week I started asking any and everybody what Christmas meant to them.  Some said “family,” too many said “expensive,” others said “stress,” many said “fun,” a half dozen said “I’m Jewish, or Muslim, or atheist,”  others said, “abandoned,” a few said “Santa with lots of toys on his sleigh” (granted, they were under ten years old), and several said a “colossal pain in the ass—I’ll be glad when it is over!” I could have sworn that at least one person said “bah, humbug,” but I’m not sure. My grandson said Christmas meant “going to see Star Wars” when he comes to visit in a few days and “finding the new Xbox One LEGO Marvel Super Heroes under the tree on Christmas morning—please Mema, pleeaaaaassse!”  No one who I asked about the meaning of Christmas said what Christmas truly is: freedom from oppression, hope, joy, peace, love, comfort for the marginalized, and healing for the abused.

Xmas attitude Pat Bagley Salt Lake Tribune

Cartoon used by permission: Pat Bagley Salt Lake Tribune

I was slightly mortified by all the responses (including my grandson’s), if the truth be known.  I wondered: “How did Christmas get hi-jacked from the broken-hearted and the oppressed by the paranoid religious White people, inadequate Bible translations, and Wall Street.  Every year I try to figure out a way to translate the goodness of God into our holiday celebrations so my grandson can understand the true meaning of Christmas.  But every year something gets lost in translation in his young mind:  “So what’s a virgin? Are you trying to tell me, Jesus had two daddies AND a mommy?  What’s a frankincense and myrrh—is that like bubble bath and Chuck’s flea soap?”

In a world where nine-year-olds are committing suicide because of bullying, a child dies of hunger every seven seconds, and refugees and asylum-seekers have topped 65 million according to the UN, my grandson is going to need more from the Christmas story then gazing at a White baby Jesus in a manger once a year (Jesus was a Jew, so what’s up with the blond, blue-eyed savior?) and militantly saying “Merry Christmas” simply to prove a point. As a young Black man, he’s going to need lots of hope and courage to get through this life!  So I decided to rewrite the Christmas story in a way he would understand and leave the frankincense and myrrh to the Bible literalists.

Frankenstein

Courtesy of Christian Funny Pictures

 

THE CHRISTMAS STORY AS TOLD BY MEMA TO BABY BOY

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, a very mean king by the name of Caesar Augustus ruled over all the world—or as much as he could capture under Roman rule.  Caesar Augustus thought that he was all that and a bag of chips—kind of like Donald Trump.  In fact, CA thought he was God—much like Donald Trump. Actually, he was awful and very cruel. I’m told that he once said:  “I could run over a bunch of Jews with my chariot in the middle of Jerusalem and my Roman supporters would not care.  I truly am king of the world.”  If you were a Roman citizen and rich, life was pretty awesome, but if you were a Jew, a non-Roman, or poor, life was the pits.  People cried all of the time because they were not free to live their lives as they wished and they didn’t have enough money and food to take care of their families. Many people were slaves to the Romans. It had been this way for a very, very long time.  So much so that it caught God’s attention.

GOD:  Gabriel, my angel, what is going on in the Earth I’ve created?  In all the years since I first breathed life into humans, I’ve never heard such a hue and cry. 

GABE:  Pardon me, my Lord, but I beg to differ.  We had an issue with that bad Pharaoh a while back, remember?  Had to raise up an outstanding guy named Moses, part the Red Sea, and escape with hundreds of people into the desert for about forty years.  It seems as if this time, it’s a Roman, not an Egyptian causing all the mayhem.

GOD:  Oh, yes!  I remember.  What is it with these humans?  There is always some nutty leader trying to impersonate me but with the character of the Devil.  You give them a little bit of talent, a few smarts, and it all goes to their heads.  They start lording it over each other, abusing people, treating each other like pond scum.  Oy vez mir!  I’m telling you Gabe, humans are getting on my every last nerve.  They better not make me come down there, or they will have Hell to pay.

GABE:  Eureka, my Lord!  Maybe that’s exactly what you should do.  You made the blueprint of why humans were created, and not one group of them has ever done the right thing by each other since their inception.  They think they know you, but they don’t have a clue as to your character.  What if you went down to Earth and hung out with them for a few years—showed them how to treat each other and the Earth you gave them?

Save us from ourselves Bob Englehart PoliticalCartoons com

Cartoon used by permission: Bob Englehart PoliticalCartoons com

GOD:  Hum… that’s not a bad idea. Except, I’m made up of all sorts of energy and matter.  If I interact with them face-to-face, they’ll implode.  It will be as if they flew to close to the sun.  That would defeat my purpose.

GABE:  Not if you cloaked a portion of yourself (your son) in the costume of a human.  Since there are three parts of you (Father, Son, and the feminine Holy Spirit), surely you could spare one part of you for a while.  I propose that you do a real sci-fi thing: slip into the Earth’s atmosphere as a fetus, get yourself born, hang out for as long as you can take it (maybe 33 years or so), show them how to live, and find some way to get ejected off the Earth and back into the heavens.   In fact, I’m thinking of a pretty powerful way you can exit stage left that would really complete the circle of sacrificial love that you have for them.  It would involve some nails and wood, and be rather painful in your human form.  But you could handle it. 

GOD:  I do love them so.  Can’t help myself.  When they’re good, they’re very good, but when they are bad… eiy, yi, yi!  Okay, find me a vessel through which to make my entrance.

GABE:  Already on it.  Her name’s Mary.  Just got engaged to a real stand up dude by the name of Joseph.  He’s mature enough to be your earthly father once he gets over the shock that his future wife is the temporary shuttle for the son of God.

GOD:  Cool.  We’ll need to alert a few of my peeps to let them know I’m in their midst since I’ll be a baby with no language skills.  Get the ad department to draft an announcement.  Send it out to the shepherds since they are usually the only ones hanging out at night under the stars.  They’ll spread the word. 

GABE:  Got it.  I think I’ll lead the angels in the proclamation myself, Sir.  How’s this:

 “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord…  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth, peace…” 

GOD:  Awesome!  Excellent Gabriel.  The hope just radiates from that proclamation makes me tingle all over.  Do you think the shepherds will believe it?

News of Jesus Birth Pat Bagley Salt Lake Tribune

Cartoon used by permission: Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune

GABE:  It’s worth a try.  If you don’t go down soon they will devour each other and there will be no humans left in a millennium or two.  They are not getting better—they’re getting worse.

GOD:  This is so exciting!  I have so much to show them about what it really means to be human.  Do they even realize that I created them in my likeness?  Do they understand that that likeness is the personification of love and joy?  I want to tell them that murder, hatred, theft, and cruelty are not why they were created.  They need to know that every soul has great worth—no matter who they are or where they were born.  I’ve got to teach them how to love one other, because my law is love, and my gospel is peace.  Come on Gabe, let’s pull together some genes, some DNA, and some chromosomes and get this baby entry pod cookin’!  People of Earth, hope is on its way!  From this day forward, all oppression shall cease!

Light of Christ Rick McKee The Augusta Chronicle

Cartoon used by permission: Rick McKee The Augusta Chronicle

 

ELEANOR’S SELAH (“AHA” MOMENT) ON THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

I am discovering that humans have always been in peril from other humans since the beginning of man. I am also discovering that my hope is not in man, in political parties, or even in myself.  My hope is that the true character of God will triumph in the Earth as well as in my own heart.  No evil lasts forever and no true love will ever die, and that is why Jesus came to Earth.  God’s love and hope is what Christmas means to me.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HANUKKAH, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, AND PEACE AND GOODWILL TO ALL!

Love, Eleanor

 

 

Hope Rick McKee The Augusta Chronicle

Cartoon used by permission: Rick McKee The Augusta Chronicle

 

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES ABOUT HOPE

 “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”—Desmond Tutu

 “The message of Jesus is summed up partly in the Sermon on the Mount, and partly when he begins his ministry and quotes the passage from Isaiah: ‘I have come to set free the prisoners and restore sight to the blind.’ And certainly, his mission is also to bring hope. It was to heal people, to befriend the outcast.”—Dan Wakefield

“For Jesus, there are no countries to be conquered, no ideologies to be imposed, no people to be dominated. There are only children, women and men to be loved.”—Henri Nouwen

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THE AUTHOR’S LATEST BOOK:  “The Fetus Chronicles:  Podcasts From my Miseducated Self” is on sale now at Amazon!

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WANT TO HEAR THE AUTHOR’S LATEST INTERVIEW?  Check out the podcast interview with Leo Brown: http://breadboxmedia.podbean.com/e/what-if-it-is-true-can-you-find-faith-in-darkness/

Christ is born Rick McKee The Augusta Chronicle

Cartoon used by permission: Rick McKee The Augusta Chronicle

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Eleanor Tomczyk and “How the Hell Did I End Up Here?” with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 
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Posted by on December 19, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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