I marked Holy Saturday with a combination of purgation and fellowship, inviting friends to come over and take my unwanted books, clothing, jewelry, records, CDs, and magazines. Mark Gauvreau Judge captured a few minutes of it for posterity, including my modeling a long-ago borrowed Soupy Sales hat (which, despite my claims of donating it to the Smithsonian, I am mailing back to its original owner):



As you can see, Todd Seavey—aka "Tom," the atheist of Chapter 18 of The Thrill of the Chaste—was there, visiting from his home in New York City. When he took the opportunity to go through my giveaway boxes, he asked, to my surprise, if he could see the Chesterton books that I was offering. Unfortunately, they had already been taken.

Not wanting to miss the opportunity to share Chesterton with him, I pulled a copy of Heretics off my bookshelf and offered it to him—never mind that it was the first U.S. edition, from 1905. He took it and said he would read it. I know he will—as I say in my book, he is honest, as ethics are important to him. Please pray that God's light and truth will shine upon him.

(I notice that Todd's blog on this Easter Sunday has something beautiful and unexpected: After marking a "Month Without God" in which he honored Christopher Hitchens and other atheists, he risks incurring the wrath of his compatriots by noting that "religion sometimes has beneficial social effects" and praising Pope John Paul II.)

Since I mention in the video that I saw the performers of the folk-music satire "A Mighty Wind" live, here's a bonus Easter treat from the film: the reunited Mitch and Mickey (Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara) performing "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow":