There’s something different about seeing the first page of The Lord of the Rings in the handwriting of its author, J.R.R. Tolkien. Not the published text. Not the stabilized version we know by heart. Just ink moving across paper while the story is still deciding what it will become. “A LONG-EXPECTED PARTY…” it begins. A bright sentence. AlmostContinueContinue reading “Pages from Tolkien’s Hand”
Author Archives: Darrell C
Marginalia: U2, “Please,” and the 1997 VMAs
In 1997, U2 took the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards and completely misread the room—or perhaps they gave the performance of their lives. Stripping away the technicolor irony of the Pop era, they handed a shiny industry crowd a raw, bleeding prayer for peace in Northern Ireland.
A Headline, a Rabbit Hole, and the Upper Room
I wasn’t looking for a theology lesson this morning. Just sitting in the recliner in the living room, cats sleeping in morning sun through the windows, the new normal now while we’re scrolling. Outside, the pines are still damp from the rain yesterday. Then a Newsweek headline stopped me cold: a Catholic group called theContinueContinue reading “A Headline, a Rabbit Hole, and the Upper Room”
Marginalia: Bon Qui Qui / MADtv Clip
There’s a clip that resurfaced today—Anjelah Johnson-Reyes playing her MADtv character Bon Qui Qui, working the register at a fictional fast-food place called King Burger. It’s not just the joke that lands first. It’s the certainty in the performance. The character is loud, yes—but more than loud, she is absolute. There’s no hesitation in the way she speaks,ContinueContinue reading “Marginalia: Bon Qui Qui / MADtv Clip”
Torn Awake
We’ve been reading in the ancient accounts from Israel’s early kings… real history, at least as I’ve always believed it, not something I read like a storybook. My wife and I have been going through it together in the mornings, usually with coffee, the city still half-asleep around us. There’s something about those mornings thatContinueContinue reading “Torn Awake”