Can Good Exist Without Evil?

8 min readJun 25, 2021

(Year 4, Week 34)

Character Traits

On Monday, the heroes faced a new kind of challenge. A, “kind” challenge as they coined it. The heroes found out that for exhibition they would creating, All About Me, documents to show their parents and visiting families. Five heroes decided to take on the challenge of creating a design and then ultimately voting on who had the best design overall. The winner of the design challenge would get to format the document and use their design template for future portfolios. The winner of the design challenge was Olivia! She was excited for the opportunity and got straight to work.

Before the heroes could dive in and start creating, they had to take a vote. They were excited when they found out that each hero was going to be receiving an award for the year, a character trait of the year! The heroes rallied around and stated giving out character traits such as: kindness, humorous, loving, helpful etc. They came up with over twenty-seven different traits and started voting. Their eyes lit up when they heard their names called out for specific traits. While others, didn’t think it fit them as much, they decided to dive a little deeper into self reflection on why someone might perceive them as, “magical” or “creative”. Sometimes the way we view ourselves is much different than what the actual world views us as.

A Voice

It is always hard to come in as a new hero. There are systems in place, contracts to sign and ultimately just meeting new people can be tricky. The heroes are always aware on how to be helpful and help a new incoming hero, but even so, it isn’t a seamless process. Throughout our own individual hero’s journeys, we are faced with the challenge of learning new skills, finding new friends and assimilating to new spaces. That’s why there was such a powerful moment on Tuesday, a new hero stepped up.

The new hero, who started this session. Session 7, the last of the school year came to the guide with a situation.

“Can I talk to you about something?”
“What’s going on?”
“Well…There aren’t ever any whiteboard markers and I know you just ordered some. People are leaving the caps off and it keeps me from being able to sign up for things and participate in stuff.”
“Ugh, that sounds tricky! What do you think you can do?”
“Well… Maybe an emergency town hall?”
“Let me know how that goes! Good luck!”

So, the new hero set off, running his first ever emergency town hall. Emergency town halls can be tricky, because people are usually in flow and wanting to get work done. However, all of the heroes got up and went to the rug and listened to the new heroes ideas on protecting markers. He ended with this statement.

“We are supposed to treat the studio like a sacred place. This isn’t treating the studio like we said we would.”

While being new can be hard, there are always ways to find the inner voice inside every hero, that leads, guides and holds up a mirror. What an incredible moment for him.

Potions

The heroes running Writer’s Workshop have been trucking along with all of their projects. This week was by far one of the most favorite activities that they have presented.

Potions!

The heroes were challenged to make their own potions which will help them achieve success in the final challenges of the session. They got to use all sorts of products from around the studio. They had little marbles, food dye, crystals, rocks, glitter and more. They worked for over an hour concocting their different potions and showing off their hard work. While designing their potions they found a ton of joy in creating new colors that they believe,

“had never been seen before!”

They were also challenged to making potions that did something magical. One hero said that her potion could transport her in time to any decade, even in the future. Another hero said that his potion would bring back loved ones who have passed. One of the crowd favorites was a potion that would give you any magical power you wanted. The minds of the heroes are truly that of creative connoisseurs! After they were all mixed, the heroes got to name them and ran around the studio joyously shouting:

“Look at mine! Try mine!”

There is beauty in fantasy.

Launch

The heroes had a deep thought launch on Thursday. A deep thought launch is a launch where a philosophical question is posed. The philosophical question was:

“The reason you want to be better, is the reason you aren’t.” — Alan Watts

The guide asked the heroes if they agreed or disagreed with the quote. Their hands shot up.

“I agree, because you aren’t better at it yet and so that’s why you’re not good.”

“Yeah I agree with that because if we can get better, then we will be better.”

The heroes went round and round, agreeing with the sentiment. Finally, one hero shot up her hand and said,

“I actually think the quote might be deeper than just something that is holding you back… I think what it means is no matter what, we have ulterior motives. We want to be better at something to show off, to prove ourselves or to show people how much better we have become at something. We are sometimes bettering ourselves just so we look better….So usually, our reasons for being better don’t really make us better. It’s almost like, can good exist without evil?”

The heroes looked around at one another. Pondering her suggestion and then the hands shot up.

“Wow, I love helping people with writing so I can get credit for showing people how to do something.”
“I help out at home because I want something in return.”
“I love showing off my work so people tell me how good it is. hahaha! That’s crazy!”

The list went on and on. A very deep discussion with absolutely no right or wrong, just deep thought and considering what it means to be better. At the end of the discussion, the heroes were challenged to think of ways in their life that they choose to do something kind or good so they receive something in return.

At the end of the day, a hero came up the the guide and said,

“I like to help my sister because…. I want her to have a happy future. I think that is a good way to be better. But I also want to help her be the happy SHE wants to be. Not what I think happy SHOULD be.”

Powerful.

Guide

In the Discovery studio there is an opportunity for an Adventure hero to come in and be a guide for the day. This is part of the Adventure studios badge plan and each hero is challenged to take it on. On Friday, an Adventure hero came in to be the temporary guide. Equipped with a launch and ready to take it on!

The hero ran a discussion about what it means to be fair. It was apparent this hero put in a ton of work and effort to not only make it an educational experience but a fun one! The game involved a die, candy and a total game of chance. The heroes were passing around candy, getting it taken away and laughing while saying, “this isn’t fair!” The Discovery heroes loved the game and thought it was fun to play. The Adventure hero asked them;

“Was this game fair, yes or no?”

A bunch of their hands shot up and they gave their insight. After the discussion the Adventure hero challenged them to think of other ways in which things aren’t fair in the studio.

As the day progressed the Discovery heroes found it challenging to remember that he was the guide for the day. They also tricked him a few times into answering their questions. At the end of the day the heroes got the opportunity to rate the hero on their guiding. This felt super empowering to the Discovery heroes and they deeply hoped their advice will help their friend on his individual hero’s journey.

Wrap-Up

On Monday, the heroes faced a new kind of challenge. A, “kind” challenge as they coined it. The heroes found out that for exhibition they would creating, All About Me, documents to show their parents and visiting families. One of the new heroes just this session held his first ever emergency town hall. Everyone listened and they came up with a plan to be better about treating the studio like a sacred place. The heroes running Writer’s Workshop have been trucking along with all of their projects. This week was by far one of the most favorite activities that they have presented. Potions! They had a blast mixing ingredients and designing colors. The heroes had a deep thought launch on Thursday. A deep thought launch is a launch where a philosophical question is posed. The philosophical question was: