In our last +1, we talked about A World Without Heroes and the fact that “A hero sacrifices for the greater good. A hero is true to his or her conscience. In short, heroism means doing the right thing regardless of the consequences.” Then we challenged ourselves to choose THIS DAY (!) to be one of them. Today we’re going to talk about some more brilliant metaphorical wisdom from Brandon Mull’s wonderful storytelling mind. Quick context: In Beyonders, our main characters gets transported to another world. In that world, an evil Emperor reigns. Few people have chosen to stand up to the Emperor. Those who look like they might be significant threats are harassed and, if they’re lucky, get invited to a place called Harthenham to enjoy the “Eternal Feast.” Basically, this is a place where you have ZERO issues. A place where you can enjoy all the most indulgent foods and pleasures you can imagine—where you have no worries at all and can literally live better than a king who has to worry about his kingdom. When presented with an invitation to Harthenham, many heroes give up their quest and cash in their ticket to the Eternal Feast—where they proceed to waste away the rest of their lives. I’ll save the spoiler alert about what happens with our young hero. Today we’ll focus on the brilliant metaphorical representation of OUR desires to get to a place where WE have no further toil or challenges. The Eternal Feast. (Doesn’t that sound scrumptiously inviting?!) We have a word for that. Exoneration. (Thanks, Phil + Barry!) Wouldn’t it be so amazing to no longer have to work so.darn.hard? No more bills to pay. Kids to feed. Laundry to fold. No more (often) overwhelming creative challenges. Or health issues. Or, well, ANY problems at all? Ahhh… Wouldn’t that be SO NICE?! Insert: Laughter. Plus: More laughter. Hah. Reminder: We will NEVER (!) be exonerated from challenges. And, the sooner we get that fact (and remember it when we forget it) the faster we’ll reduce the “Resistance” part of the “Suffering = Pain x Resistance” equation as we get back to practicing the ancient art of acquiescence and the modern art of loving what is. That’s Today’s +1. Let’s reject our invitation to the Eternal Feast. And get back to serving the greater good. Heroically. Today. (And tomorrow. And…)
