Hestia VS. Icarus Round 2

            “Destroy the old in order to build the new.” Earlier in the semester we discussed Hestia versus Icarus, and which one we felt most represented ourselves. Hestia the goddess of the hearth, or Icarus the wax winged boy with the insatiable need to fly high and away. Although I didn’t actually do the extra credit assignment, if I had, I world have asserted that I was a little bit of both, with a strong lean toward Hestia, and a strong hate for her too. Hestia does not share my goals, dreams and ambitions. She does not want to travel the world, she does not want to try new things, learn new languages, make new friends, and she does not want to me to challenge her. You see I have always believed that character takes maintenance.  If you want to retain a fit figure you must maintain it by exercising it, or essentially, challenging it. A person’s character is the same way. For me to be the best person I can be, to be happy with myself, I must challenge my character. I must force myself to step out of my bubble, try new things and entertain ideas that are foreign to me, or opposite to my own. When drastic character maintenance is needed, it is often necessary to destroy my Hestia in order to build something new.

            Self destruction is often an important part to releasing ones creativity.  In the novel A Question of Power by Bessie Head, the main character Elizabeth, is amidst a metal breakdown. But it is only through the complete destruction of her previous character that she can regain her sanity and rebuild herself. As shown in this novel, more often than not creativity is inevitably connected to self destruction.

            Bessie head shows us through her novel that destruction is a form of creation “How to get over the hurdle of the present into the happiness of the future? (44).” While Elizabeth is going through her breakdown, she sees and experiences a lot of crazy things. A medusa violently hurdles Elizabeth’s unconscious “crap,” and “muck,” at her. A holy man named Sello occupies her room at night talking with her while numerous, outrageous dramas unfold in front of her.  The destruction of Elizabeth is a work of creativity. It is the creative works of the author who, she herself also suffered a mental breakdown, and the mental illusions of Elizabeth is her creative mind destroying the old so that, sanity can be reached, and a new beautiful mind could be built. Bessie’s self destruction produced her works of creativity. Sello, a figment of Elizabeth’s imagination, tells Elizabeth, “If you did not like anything I destroyed it. It was alive that body of deep evil from so long ago, it was still alive. I destroyed it all (98).” Sello tells Elizabeth point blank that he is violently destroying the old, in order to rebuild the new. Both Bessie head and her character Elizabeth use creativity and self destruction in order to get over the hurdle of the present into the future of happiness.

             Shiva the Hindu god of destruction and recreation says, “Destroy the old in order to build the new.”  Artists of all kind use self destruction to unleash a form of creativity. How many songs by our favorite artists are written during and about, their times of deepest sorrow? How many famous painters paint to express their personal turmoil? Artists like Frida, and Picasso. We ourselves often benefit from our own self destruction. We discover creative capacities within ourselves that we would never have know where there, if we hadn’t of gone though a form of destruction. Sometimes to get the most out of life we most destroy parts of ourselves. Challenge our characters.

             I may not be the most creative cat around but I know that when I challenge myself, and perform the necessary maintenance on my character, something beautiful emerges. Wisdom and newfound knowledge is gained. Self destruction is a form of creation and creation is beautiful. So look out Hestia, Icarus has just arrived.