E54. "Cast Out" by Joanna Michal Hoyt

This audiobook features "Cast Out" by Joanna Michal Hoyt. Published in the July 2021 issue of After Dinner Conversation: Philosophy | Ethics Short Story Magazine.

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STORY SUMMARY (Spoilers): How do you deal with generalized fears? How do you learn to overcome a mental health issue so you can serve others? In this work of philosophical short fiction, Verity suffers from irrational fears.  She is afraid the fire in her fireplace will catch her mattress on fire so she puts out the fire and rolls her mattress into the snow outside. A friend comes over, but she is too distraught to spend time with them. She heads to the community building and is told, “Tell truth and shame the devil.” And so she does.  She stops trying to hide her mental health issues and, bit by bit, they get better. She gets a job helping the local healer. Eventually, when those from the neighb…