E - Everyone

The Whole Enchilada

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I love a good enchilada.  It’s my favorite Mexican food. And if you don’t have Hispanic tastes then please bear with me (you can insert a different food like PB and J or something lame like that). An enchilada is made of 3 basic parts: tortilla, filling, and sauce. Without those fundamentals, you do not have an enchilada. Now that we have that straight (in case you didn’t know before), let me expl...ain to you where this is all going.
When I was at youth group we were studying how God is Truth. My mind was not quite following the discussion I’m afraid. My thoughts were wandering, flitting around like butterflies, not staying one place for a long time. Is her hairband made out of shoelaces? The sky was really pretty today. Does it say ‘toad’ anywhere in the Bible? And so forth. A couple girls were trying to figure out what to write in their notes for the “who is truth” question. Some said Jesus. Some God. A few said the spirit. That is when one of my thoughts escaped my mouth.
“THE WHOLE ENCHILADA!”
We all giggled and that seemed to be it. But the Butterfly wouldn’t fly away. It stood there and wouldn’t be brushed aside. I stared me in the face and wouldn’t let me have peace. The whole enchilada. A rather absurd saying. But what came next is what disturbed me most. And it defiantly wasn’t my mind working here. It was the spirit grounding that thought firmly in my head. It said,
“The trinity is like an enchilada.”
What? Seriously God? An Enchilada? Are you hungry or something? However, the meaning began to unfold.
The trinity is something that has always perplexed me. My unorthodox view helped the trinity make sense.
Now, as I said earlier, the enchilada consists of three main ingredients: the tortilla, the filling and the sauce. Take away any of these pieces and you no longer have an enchilada. Take away the tortilla? It’s meat sauce. What about the sauce? Nope, take that away and it’s a chimichanga. Can’t we even take away the filling? No! That would leave us with nachos! All these things are good in and of themselves. But Enchiladas very good. They’re legit. They’re complete. They’re… Enchiladas!
Without the Father/Son/Spirit the trinity is not complete. They are all good in and of themselves. But together they are very good.
That is the first truth enchiladas bestowed upon me.
Here is the second:
I’m going to keep this simple. Tortillas are not filling. Filling isn’t sauce. Sauce isn’t tortilla. Right?
The Father isn’t the Son. The Son isn’t the Spirit. The Spirit isn’t the Father. Comprende?
The Third:
When you look at an enchilada what do you see? No, I’m not asking you to use your imagination or inner eye or whatever. I’m pointing at that enchilada and asking you what it is. Are you going to say ‘It’s millions of molecules made of billions of atoms consisting of protons and neutrons in a nucleus with electrons orbiting it in complex patterns?’ I hope not, because it hurt my brain just to write that. That explanation wouldn’t really clear anything up for me. Hopefully, your answer would be simple. ‘It’s an enchilada’ or at least ‘it’s some sort of Mexican food’ but hopefully the former.
In spiritual matters it is, in the same way, confusing to overthink things. We take the trinity, something that has eternally been together, apart piece by piece, and therefore bewildering ourselves and others.
Truth #4
A good enchilada has balancing tastes. The proportions have to be just right in order for it to taste good. Nobody wants a dry crusty bland tortilla for supper. That’s why there is a flavorful sauce. Without the filling there would be no substance to the meal, and we would quickly become hungry again.
The Father, Son, and Spirit are no more or less prominent than one another. They all must be together and balanced for the true trinity.
Finally, #5
(Even if it sounds funny it’s true)
  We have to realize that we will never fully understand the mystery of the trinity, just as we will never fully understand how enchiladas could ever be so amazingly delicious.
That my friends, is my crazy, spirit-led idea. I will gladly take criticism for anything stupid thing I’ve said; I’m still learning.
  But I think this just goes to show that God can speak to us any way he wants, be that through a song, a story, or even an enchilada craving.

Comments & reviews · 3
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User avatar
anonymousx
Review

Hey, Wannabe. First off, thanks so much for sharing your story The Whole Enchilada. I probably shouldn't have read this when I was hungry, but that's my own fault. The first thing I want to say is that in the first paragraph, I really enjoy how you told us how to make an enchilada. For those who don't know, it's a really cool tip thrown into your story. During the last sentence, I think it was just a finger fudge up, it says "Let me expl...ain..." which was kind of confusing. Again, probably just a mess up. The next paragraph is kind of random. I would have loved to see something in the first paragraph that helped lead us into the youth group portion of your story. I think it was pretty cool that you threw in religion into your story, even though I'm not religious at all...I completely understand what you're saying. You can't have one thing without the other, otherwise it means nothing. Over all, it was a pretty cool short story. I really enjoy the message that you gave at the end about god speaking to us in different ways because I think that it's true, despite me not being religious. Minus the spelling thing in the beginning, it was humorous and now I'm kind of craving an enchilada.

User avatar
alliyah
Comment

What an interesting take on the Holy Trinity, this is definitely a non-traditional piece that is written somewhat narratively somewhat like an essay and contains elements on spirituality, culture, and humor. That is an interesting mix! I enjoyed reading! Good luck in your future works.

alliyah

User avatar
ChipsMcCoy
Review

Hey, Chips here with a review and a slightly belated warm welcome to YWS!

Well, I really enjoyed reading your essay overall. It was great to see a spiritual text which blended humor together in it, as some people would have the misconception that spiritual people don't know how to joke, but this essay proved that wrong. You also explained the trinity in a way that I haven't seen before which was interesting to see and I'm glad this essay came from your own personal experience, hence the reader can connect with it.

There is always room for improvement, so I have some suggestions and nitpicks for you.

I noticed that, although this is supposed to be humorous, you were lacking the standard essay features at certain points. I felt like this was more of a "short story" as oppose to an essay. Some of your phrasing and ordering of context could be altered too. You had a few punctuation errors also.

"(you can insert a different food like PB and J or something lame like that)."

This line was subjective and if someone happens to like a food such as the one you mentioned "lame", it would be better off if you had not have worded it like that because the nature of an essay to avoid bias. I would suggest it be rephrased to something more appropriate like e.g. *you can insert a different food like PB and J or any food which had three parts to it*, something along those lines.

" I stared me in the face and wouldn't let me have peace."

Here, I think you meant, *It*.

"And it defiantly wasn't my mind working here."

The word "defiantly" doesn't quite make sense in this sentence so perhaps, *definitely* instead.

"What? Seriously God? An Enchilada? Are you hungry or something?"

I thought there was too many questions added here, and elsewhere for that matter, maybe cutting them down a bit.

"But Enchiladas very good. They’re legit."

This line seemed repetitive, you're basically expressing your like for them twice but in different words. And I think there shouldn't be a full-stop separating them, a comma would have been fine. The word "are", should be after the word "Enchilada".

"They are all good in and of themselves. But together they are very good."

You've used the word "good" too much, use a more powerful adjective, good just sounds boring - the trinity is definitely more than "good" alone, it brought salvation.

"Comprende?"

It would be even better if there wasn't a question after every line like this, the reader can think for themselves whether they are understanding the context, if you need to ask after every line if the reader is understanding your points, then you should write it in a way which has more clarity.

"A good enchilada has balancing tastes. The proportions have to be just right in order for it to taste good."

"good", here again is used, you could search up some synonyms for good.

"That’s why there is a flavorful sauce. Without the filling there would be no substance to the meal, and we would quickly become hungry again."

I felt like you said this already in the essay, just in different words, maybe cutting it out or changing the order of where it is.

"Finally, #5 "

I would advise you to not use numbers in essays unless you're using them as statistics, and I wouldn't use hash tags either. I felt like you last paragraph could have had a much stronger
conclusion.

Overall good job, this has potential. I hope this review helped. Keep writing. Feel free to ask me if you ever need another review.

--Chips x

Thanks for the review Chips! And yes, it was extremely sloppy, but here are my disclaimers:) I wrote it at 1 am and it is actually a Facebook post I wrote and became attached to. I will certainly edit it, on that fantasized day that I have leftover time, and have your comments at hand. Thanks again!



I just write poetry to throw my mean callous heartless exterior into sharp relief. I’m going to throw you off the ship anyway.
— Vogon Captain (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)