Creative Response (Editorial)

I t’s a difficult question really, one that has been

explored through many facets of literature during modern history. How does one come from a place of internal struggle in order to restore the honor and certainty that they once felt? Isn’t it something that everyone deals with, doesn’t everybody want to feel honor and certainty or at least some mark of distinction in their lives, well I suppose that would depend on the individual. That’s the easy part wanting to feel something; the real challenge is getting to that place and ultimately staying there. Most people go about this in the same way, we try to achieve some form of success and hope that self-gratification will follow.

When we want something desperately when we fail at the first attempt, it is almost natural to try harder the next time in order to achieve or regain the honor and certainty that we once had. It seems that this is most often achieved through a successful endeavor that brings us some sort of honor as well as certainty. Don McKay subtly explains it in the sonnet Setting up the Drums, he says “He is bringing the kitchen, the workshop, screwing wingnuts and attaching brackets, placing the pedals like accelerators, setting up the stands for snare and high hat like decapitated wading birds, How will music make itself walk into the terrible stunned air behind the shed where all the objects looked away. “ to me this means that the man described in the poem is putting in all of the effort necessary to make his music great, and he knows if he does all of the things that are necessary that the music will be of such a quality that it will speak for itself.

This relates to my own life in many ways, at this point in my life the only people who I feel that I need to please are my parents or other adults that I consider important in my life. In order to do this there is a certain standard of excellence that I expect myself to meet everyday. I take this very seriously there for I consciously think about every decision I make in order to maintain honor as well as certainty in my life.

If for some reason this balance that I strive for becomes lost in the chaos, I work exceptionally hard to try and regain it. Usually this is done through my sports. I have learned over fourteen years of team play that when something’s not going your way, the only way to fix it is to work twice as hard in order to ensure that you have the best chance for success. If you give up a goal on one shift, you better be putting forth the extra effort to score a goal on the next. This applies to life in so many ways. In the poem Setting up the Drums it is obvious that the subject is working hard to ensure his success and through that success he will be rewarded with the gratification of honor and well as certainty.