The actor Bernard Hill, who played King Theoden in the Lord of the Rings, says in The Two Towers: "No parent should have to bury their child." I think about that scene a lot, not being a Lord of the Rings fanatic but just admiring the movies and loving Tolkien.

Before the trilogy, Hill, who is an excellent British stage actor, was in England when a woman came up to him and told him about how her child had died recently. She said that parents shouldn't have to bury their children. This event so moved him that he asked to include that line in the dialogue of The Two Towers.

I found out yesterday that an old student of mine was shot this past weekend. Gang-related, as they say. He was 22. I taught him for three years. I don't know what else to say.