joan and jon

Jon Foreman has a cool new article: "The Dark Horse: Joan of Arc, Elliot Smith and Me"

Here are my highlights:

You can't be a hero without adversity. Every knight has his dragon to slay, every Joan of Arc has her Hundred Year War. This is to say, only when something goes against you, are you afforded the opportunity to be a hero. Failure and opposition award us opportunities that success and support cannot. The bigger the obstacle, the bigger the chance to be a hero.

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All thee cooler than thou, all you rock-throwing pessimists -- know this: bitterness does not make you bullet-proof. It just poisons what's left. Yes, we have problems. But problems are not the end of the story. In the words of Gary Oliver, "Cadavers don't have problems." With every God-given breath let us remember: those beneath the gravestones would dream to have problems like ours.

Cynicism cannot save us. I know this first hand. Yes, it might offer us a temporary insulation from the pain of being alive. But the world that disenchantment offers us is closer to the grave than we might have thought. Dull and gray and tasteless -- the tomb of the cynic is built while he is still alive.

I raise my voice to the dark horses -- cry enormous tears, my friends! Suffer enormous defeats! Challenge Michael Jordan to a game. Give him a wink and throw him off guard. Yes, you are the underdog. But your fate does not rest in your circumstance but rather in your shameless expectancy, your cocky conviction, your unblushing expectancy.

My friends, be audacious with your hope. Never believe that the world can't change. Never believe that you can't change. Picture our hero, Joan of Arc, the patron saint of the dark horse -- the 16-year-old, illiterate, cross-dressing, clairvoyant farm girl leading men into battle. Listen to her adolescent voice calling out, "I am not afraid... I was born to do this."