Author Archives: davetcourt

Listening to Jack Garrett’s cover of the Waterboys’ “The Whole of the Moon” this morning. Was struck by this thought. 10 years ago I started my personal blog space as a way of grappling with the reality of turning 40, which for me had brought on a deeply felt existential crisis regarding this world andContinue reading “The Waterboys, The Whole of the Moon, and Seeing the Grace of the Stories That Shape Us”

The tagline for the book Progress: A History of Humanity’s Worst Idea by Samuel Miller McDonald says,“Progress is power. But our modern story of progress is a very dangerous fiction.” I have been listening to this on audio along with Sven Beckert’s Capitalism: A Global History and Adam Kucharski’s Proof: The Art and Science ofContinue reading “Why the Narratives We Tell Matter: Understanding The Myths of Progress, Capitalism, and Proofs”

For me when people ask who my favorite filmmaker is there is one name that immediately comes to mind- Guillermo del Toro. I have read a ton on this enigmatic figure over the years, I had the chance to visit the touring exhibit on his life and career, At Home With Monsters, and I’ve spentContinue reading “Finding Truth in the Tension: Learning to be Okay”

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that theContinue reading “Why Do We Fear the Transformed Man Rather Than the Demons: Reflections on Mark 5 and 6”

Here’s my list of watches for January: The Old Woman With the Knife (Min Kyu-dong, 2026)- a stylish South Korean indie action film with some nice character beats Night Call (Michiel Blanchart, 2025)- a tense low budget thriller about a guy who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time from France andContinue reading “My January Watches”

My month started with two hold overs from 2025, the buzzy Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (format: physical book) and the massive tome, Mark Twain by Ron Chernow (format: audiobook). Both books are ones in which I read the majority last year, but finished in the early weeks of January. McConaghy’s patient mystery livedContinue reading “My January Reads”

I posted a comment back when I started this book about that euphoric feeling that comes when you discover a like mind and a shared language. Especially when it is a voice that has layed hidden in plain sight for all of these years. Partly, I’m sure, due to the association with Anne of GreenContinue reading “A Conversation With Emily of the New Moon: Learning to Preserve Wonder in a World That Wants to Steal It and the Shared Voices that Help Us Do This”

“After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die,” Charlottes Web (E.B. White) One of the earliest memories I have of being captivated by a story is reading Charlottes Web. Like the character in Shyamalan and Spark’s recent collaborative effort Remain, I too found myself being struck by thisContinue reading “What is a Life: The Questions of a 7 Year Old Boy and the Stories That Shaped Him”

“The way a story begins is important…. the stories we believe about who we are and where we come from shape our worldview and the way we see ourselves and value others.” (page 43, Redeeming Eden: How Women in the Bible Advance the Story of Salvation) Barely one month in and the beginning of theContinue reading “Between Interpretation and Imagination: Finding the Story in a World of Stories”

There are two direct parallels called to mind in Mark 2:13-17, a story that describes Jesus walking along the sea of Galilee, encountering a crowd, singling out an individual, and being called out for those whom he is associating with and for his words/actions reflecting an offence in light of Torah faithfulness. The first callContinue reading “A Conversation With Mark 2:13-17: What it Means To Follow Jesus and For Sinners to Be Restored and What That Tells Us About the Torah and the Scribes”