Why Some Writers Carry Tasers and Pay to be Unfindable
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I’ve intended to write on this topic for some time now—the risk of having a public online presence, that is. It’s one many of us are sadly all too familiar with: strangers acting in bad faith, taking your words out of context,
Corruption and Redemption
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Guest post by Jenn Zuko
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Back in 2004, I taught a graduate-level literature course called ‘Hobbits and
Éowyn's Redemption from Despair to Hope
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I’m also struck by the fact that once again, heroism in Tolkien’s story does not present the way it conventionally would in such stories, or in the way Éowyn understood heroism at the start of her journey.
She learns that it does not have to take her skill with a sword to make her a strong woman.
Ways I Am Simplifying My Life in 2025
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Dear Inklings,
I cannot believe we are now at the end of 2024. Last year, I shared the ways I
I Followed Jesus But My Life Didn't Get Better
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My questions of why injustice and suffering exist have never been answered. Yet I found what I was looking for all along: God Himself.
It Wasn’t Love At First Sight
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The common narrative is that when you give birth, you fall in love with your baby at once.
In reality, this is a stranger you have to get to know, just like any other person. Sometimes, it’s love at first sight. Other times, it’s not.
Samwise Gamgee: The Heart of the Fellowship
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Sam’s decisions in these five chapters cement both his character and his strength, both of which draw on his strongest attribute (and why I—and I suspect so many of us—adore him so much). His heart.
Only That Which They Defend
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And yet, in The Lord of the Rings, Sam and Faramir end up having tremendous influence over the outcome of the story. Not because they are powerful, but because of those very attributes the world deemed unworthy.
Seeing Stones and Silver Tongues
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Whether through magical devices or human speech, the challenge of conveying and receiving truth remains central to these chapters. This illustrates the difficulties of communication, not between different languages, but between what comes out and what is received.
Valuing the Least of These
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Through these chapters, Tolkien illustrates that one of the highest goods—a light by which to choose in dark times—is caring for those who seem weakest among us, carrying them along in their journey.
To love at all is to be Vulnerable
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So much fear and anger exists between people, and how easily we can see each other as enemies or “others.” I’m not so naive as to think that just listening and talking will solve all problems, but it is a starting point—one more powerful than we might think.
Hope in the Face of Shadow
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From the (seemingly) lowly to the wise and powerful, for years—generations, even—people have been fighting with all the means they have—unseen, unthanked.
Everyone believes themselves to have been alone in their struggles. Only in this moment do they realise they never have been.
Reality Echoes in Tolkien's Legendarium
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While The Lord of the Rings is an epic fantasy, depicting a life-threatening, world-altering quest, the story within Tolkien’s three books is but one small piece of a much larger history.
A Fellowship Stronger Than Fate
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Neither of these Hobbits is chosen based on their skill, knowledge, or power, but rather on their fierce loyalty to Frodo. Arguably the most loved Hobbit of all, Samwise Gamgee, is the least impressive.
Tracing Your Shadow through Shifting Leaves
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“Your father is sick, so we must leave you sometimes,” Mommy says. Grandma cries below the stairs when she thinks I am asleep.
I clutch a photo of them when I miss them, and I pray God would spare him, that we might share in more, all the seasons of life together.
I didn't want to be an author
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I write not just for the boy taken too early from this world, but for the little girl who grew up too scared to speak her truth.
I write because I now know stories can light up the Shadow and save a life—two lives.
But one is enough.
Lord of the Rings Reading Challenge
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Why Should You Read The Lord of the Rings?
Contrary to popular belief, this book is not a simple story of good defeating evil and everyone living happily ever after. There is so much nuance and layering that even after sixteen years of reading it, I find something fresh and relevant with each read.
Roots and Wings
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I am a mess of contradictions.
In the end, those jagged edges may never fit together into a perfect, cohesive whole. But really, who wants that anyway?
