Most Exalted Evil Master

    My favorite C.S. Lewis book is "The Screwtape Letters", in which the demon Screwtape is advising his nephew Wormwood in the art of tempting believers in Christ into sin or, at least, apathy. In that vein, though not with Lewis' talent, I have created a series of emails from a demon in charge of child sacrifice to his boss, Satan. 

Email:

From:  Mmolechson@satansrealm.gov/deptofinhumanservices 

To: Dragon@darkworld.gov                                                                                                     

 Most Majestic Evil Master,                                                                       312 A.D          

   Please forgive my use of the human designation of the year, I know you have plans to change it in the future to remove any acknowledgment of the life of Christ, but for now it is convenient. As the demon you have appointed in charge of child sacrifice I thought I should give a status report. Just as you planned, through many different religions, rulers, and mortal realms, child sacrifice numbers have remained steady. My current concern is that in Rome, where you have had so much freedom to further your agenda, Emperor Constantine appears to have converted to Christianity. Even in my department, I have heard reports that your deputies assigned to Rome believe he might make Christianity its official religion. Christian teachings always interfere with your master plan and this could have a detrimental effect on the number of babies sacrificed to idols. The timing is also a problem, because the Roman Empire itself is in decline. Is there a plan to assist my department in case of this contingency?

 

Malacious Molechson 

 

Reply:

 

   As you know well, I have prepared many alternate schemes. My agents infiltrated our enemy's church from the beginning, and will use the establishment of Christianity as Rome's official religion to further assert my influence. When the church becomes a path to political power and wealth, men allied with me will hold its highest offices. And, since our enemy plans to replace the Roman kingdom soon anyway, I will accept a decrease in your quota as long as you maintain human sacrifice levels in the less "civilized" cultures where I still hold sway.

 

MEEM

Most Exalted Evil Master,                                                                           1850 

 

   Your plan to replace child sacrifice with abortion is going very well. Mortal mothers are less willing to kill a baby after it is born than when the process is sight unseen. The delusion that the unborn child is not really alive until the mother can feel movement, what they call the "quickening," is well accepted. Besides, when contraception is not reliable, available, and in some jurisdictions even legal, abortion becomes, by default, not murder but birth control. Up until this time, abortion has mostly been the purview of midwives and sellers of folk remedies, but doctors in the newly formed medical associations now feel they should control our business and have begun to spread the long suppressed truth that life begins at conception. Even worse, some do gooders, in the name of women's rights, claim it is abusive for husbands, lovers, pimps, etc. to make women abort babies against their will. Business has been very good, but I'm afraid there may be a downturn.

 

MMolechson 

 

Reply:

 

   Do not doubt me, my simple servant, focus on the end game! In the context of my long term plan to separate mortals from their Maker, these setbacks to my agenda are temporary and unimportant. Humans are not wise enough to remember, much less learn from, their past. I do not even need to create new lies, I just reword and recycle my age old ones.

 

MEEM   

 

Most Exalted Evil Master                                                                       1973

 

   Congratulations on your great victory in the Roe vs. Wade decision! Your brilliant strategy of removing prayer, and every vestige of Christian values from public schools has paved the way for this success. I expect many years of exceeding our previous quotas. But I am concerned that improvements in medical technology may make it possible to see the development of their infants from shortly after conception. This may dispel the illusion that aborted babies are just blobs of tissue. If human mothers can view their unborn children, they may decide not to sacrifice them.

 

MMolechson 

 

Reply:

 

    I have, of course, already anticipated this. Medical science cannot stand up to a simple human slogan. For now, my puppet, Planned Parenthood, is promoting the slogan, "Every child a wanted child."  When that one weakens because so many couples want to adopt those children, I will inspire them to make one about a woman's right to control her own body. After all, viewing other humans as property worked well to justify slavery for a long time. 

 

MEEM  

 

Most Exalted Evil Master                                                                            2022

 

    I am devastated at the news that Roe vs. Wade was overturned. I was sure you had enough operatives in the Supreme Court to continue the ruse that the U.S. Constitution upholds the right to abortion. Some states have already made abortion less accessible. Without support from upper management I cannot meet my expected death quotas.

 

MMolechson 

 

Reply:

 

    Do not underestimate me! My agenda is advancing as planned. During the years in which abortion was enshrined  as a right (their terminology reveals the success of my worship campaign, though I prefer they call it a rite), human life was so devalued that mass shootings of school children, coworkers, and random people in public venues are common occurrences. Many mortals are unable to tell the difference between my terrorists and their victims. And my "hate speech" propaganda campaign has convinced many that people who disagree with them deserve to die. My delusion that humans can determine for themselves what is right and wrong, true and false, has dominated man's thinking since Eden. I am not concerned about this small setback, many mortals still proclaim my abortion distortion propaganda as true. Where killing the most innocent of beings is considered acceptable, death reigns. I reign and remain-- 

 

Most Exalted Evil Master

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

    

Deceived Stupidity

    I admit the ongoing Anti-Ice protests tempt me to despair at the deceived stupidity of so many of my fellow citizens. But if I let that persuade me that God has lost control of his planet, my country, or even just Minneapolis, then I am part of the deceived stupidity.

 

The Company of Men

     This is the poem I had in mind before writing The Men of the Palace. I realized the reason I sacrifice so much of my Saturday to Tool Palace visits when I am not in the market for used tools is because I have always enjoyed the company and conversation of men. Since I am there with my husband and the other men's wives are not around to feel insecure, I can relax and be myself.

The Company of Men

I have always enjoyed the company of men--

tagging along as a little girl,

watching Roy Rogers, Sky King

and Saturday morning cartoons

at Dad's friend's house,

listening to the men visit.

 

Next came the school years

with boys aplenty and men too few.

At Bible college, where many girls

thought conversing with men

was solely to procure or poach a boyfriend,

I was considered a shameless flirt.

 

The churches I used to attend

treated talking much the same.

Though by then a happily married woman, 

at church social gatherings,

with their wives within easy earshot, 

speaking with men was still suspect. 

 

Fortunately, the world of 

aircraft mechanics is mostly male,

and by this time, from

decades in an aviation atmosphere,

I can contribute meaningfully

to most conversations. 

Though I am happy to visit

with a pilot or mechanic's wife,

I'm not intimidated if they don't come.

I am used to flying solo

through a cyclone of testosterone. 

I have always enjoyed the company of men. 

 

1/21/26 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Men of the Palace

     It has been weeks since I have had anything ready for my Saturday poetry swap with Fred, poet laureate of The Tool Palace. Saturday he made it clear that I needed to jack hammer my writer's block out of the way and bring him a poem. Since he wrote a poem about Tool Palace last week from his perspective, I decided to write one from mine.

 The Men of the Palace  

 

The Men of the Palace

                           are waiting there                           

on Saturdays at noon. 

And I, the only lady fair,

with escort, join them soon. 

 

Some are the wizards,

and some the wits, but 

jesters all can be.

They sit, for they are aged and tired, 

yet yield a chair to me.

 

There's wisdom 

to be gathered there 

if one can sift it out 

from the multitude of stories

they like to throw about.

 

They sit, as if 

to guard the door,

yet none could stop a thief.

Customers coming in the store 

must wonder who these could be. 

 

When the men of the Palace 

filled with tools 

make a place for me

among the stools, 

I feel like royalty.

 

1/20/26 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Because We Can

    This week Reed got the very good news that his last PSA levels were too low to be detectable. His prostate cancer has responded beautifully to treatment. But so that he does not run out of things to worry about, his blood pressure was up at his last heart appointment and he now has a heart murmur. His EKG was a little off at his stress test, but no more than before he took it, and today's follow up confirmed that they found no problem with his heart. Admittedly, Reed had fallen off the heart healthy diet bandwagon since prostate cancer treatment--more like, jumped off and rolled away from the band wagon--those high numbers were a more powerful incentive than I was to climb back on. As a cook I am happy to accommodate his diet needs, but as a realist with some medical training, I am frustrated. 

    During my years as a volunteer taking blood pressures at Sykes Pharmacy, many of my geriatric clients said that their doctor wanted their BP around 130 over 60. In order to achieve this arbitrary ideal, they had to take multiple medications. While it would be wonderful if our senior systems could be restored to the health levels of our 30's, it is not realistic. Thirty years ago it was understood that blood pressure readings for people over 60 were more likely to be in the 150/90 range. Though physicians realize they cannot restore our metabolism, strength, skin, eyesight, hearing, balance, etc. to 30's levels, they support this standard for blood pressure. Of course no one wants a stroke or heart attack, but realistically, meds or not, odds of that increase with age, just as they do for cancer, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, and dementia.

    I asked the pharmacist why, amid the herd of health problems that rear their head in old age, blood pressure is the one sacred cow. Her answer was, restoring muscle tone, metabolism, etc. was hard, blood pressure was easy--just take another pill. In other words, the reason for altering blood pressure to a higher/lower standard is, because we can. I told her that if my husband had chosen to restore his youthful energy, endurance and sex drive with testosterone, he would have unknowingly spread prostate cancer throughout his body. She agreed hormones can be dangerous. But what about over medicating? 

     At one time, obstetricians thought perhaps many births should be scheduled and induced, not out of medical necessity, but because we can. It turned out to be convenient for them, but harmful for moms and babies. And some male gynecologists thought it would a a huge convenience, if women beyond childbearing had total hysterectomies and took prescription hormones--not for a medical problem, but because we can. However, besides irritating men, women's hormones actually delay onset of osteoporosis, heart disease, and other age related issues. And supplemental hormones can actually increase a woman's odds of getting cancer.

     In years to come, we may discover that fighting high blood pressure and heart rate with mixed martial arts levels of medication does not cause problems, but the hope that our physicians might research side effects and drug interactions before recommending medications was faint to begin with, and died during Covid. Christians should be good stewards of our God given bodies; diet, exercise, and medication play a part in that. But Jesus said none of us by taking thought (human effort) can add to the length of our lives--because we can't.

      

Bye Bye Baggy

    I bought a new ensemble before shoulder replacement, knowing I needed pants that pulled on and easy to use button/zip front shirts. The pants, especially, are not really my style but I figured Costco prices would make buying them less painful. Before that Costco trip I did not own a pair of sweats. Today I am wearing a velour "tracksuit" in plum with a zip front top that includes a hood. A hood. Inside my home. I know this would be someone's ideal comfy active wear because I saw a young woman wearing the same outfit at Harbor Freight a few days ago. But when I wear it, I feel like I should be inactive, on a couch, smoking cigarettes, and watching soaps. My body may be baggy, but my brain is not wired for this. 

    Since the most painful activity I did before shoulder surgery was pulling up and fastening my pants, elastic waistbands may have been a good idea before now, but I dislike them because what goes up tends to come down. And a drawstring seems a flimsy thing to stand between me and accidentally mooning someone. One pair of my sweats, however, decided to defy gravity as, throughout the day, the waistband headed north toward my armpits in a futile search for my waist. That kind of upward mobility is not a comfortable sensation. I prefer my clothes to stay where I put them, especially when I am wearing them.

    Since my shoulder is healing quickly, I can already shimmy into some of my pull on dress pants and the pull over tops I prefer. If I believed the saying clothes make the man, I would never have married Reed, whose preferred style is somewhere between homeless and hobo. But clothes certainly make Connie, and baggy clothes make me feel like a bag lady. I will be very happy when it's time to bid baggy bye bye.

   

     

 

Tears at Christmas

     My writing usually improves if I don't publish it until the next day when I have had time to give it more thought and better wording, but this poem is time sensitive, and I want it to help those already experiencing the bittersweet blessing of Christmas, so I will post this one today. 

 

Tears at Christmas 

 

There were tears at Christmas from the first,

the pain and joy of Jesus' birth,

sorrow for the price he'd pay

for God to take our sins away.

There were tears at Christmas.

 

There are tears at Christmas, for many 

seek the joy we're taught there ought to be.

Sorrow instead, is better known  

in war torn lands and broken homes.

There are tears at Christmas. 

 

There are tears at Christmas, for those who mourn 

 remember joy with their loved one,

sorrow that those days are gone

though they live on, in heaven.

There are tears at Christmas.

 

There are tears at Christmas, and God feels

our pain, yet that is how He heals.

Sorrow on earth must come before 

the joy that heaven will restore,

and no more tears at Christmas.   

 

12/23/25