"Find Your Howl" A Discussion on Creative Voice

Johathon Flaum’s "Find Your Howl"




So what's the gist?
In Flaum's first story, regarding the red wolves, he talks about the transition from comfort and captivity to the unknown. But it is in that unknown that we can truly find who we are in the deepest part of us. He speaks about the captivity the wolves were living in, as comparable to the security of living in our parents homes, and being cared for by them. Which is what we need when we are young. But Flaum goes on to express that we are missing some key element of ourselves when in captivity. It is not until we venture into the wilderness, and fend for ourselves that we can truly learn who we are, and can finally retrieve that key element that makes us, us.

What aids us in this endeavor of finding our own voice?
The main example is the creative advice of the masters, quotes, stories, etc.

I may be young, but I adamantly maintain that one of the wisest and most mentally provocative adages I've ever seen, was one I found on a t-shirt. It said :

"You laugh because I'm different, I laugh because you're all the same".

I cannot express on how many different occasions this saying has gotten me through. Be it those awkward 7-8th grades, or when faced with a particularly narrow-minded critic, this small piece of wisdom carried me upward, and allowed me to look within myself to achieve my goal.

As we all know, quite well, creativity is a daunting blessing, and as Flaum explains it does not come without a hefty cost. Those that are truly talented and creative are required to be different from everyone else, even different from other creative peers. The cost of this creativity is that we all have to find our own "howl" or artistic voice. This voice is different for each one of us, and it is what allows the arts to continue to thrive. Now there are many individuals in this medium that fall short of their own voice because they choose to use what others have done . But, more often than not, they aren't regarded as an artist are they?

In order to be a creative soul, one must be different, to think and feel differently from those around them. This can lead to arduous social challenges, both while growing up and through-out our lifetime. I know that most of us have been picked on more often than others, because of those creative aspects we posses, and it was this quote that really struck home with me. Those that don't understand, they aren't worth it, usually they will never come to get it. They are simple minded, and will live a life devoid of the rich and deep seeded sense of accomplishment one gets when probing the very depths of existence. Though it is disheartening to think along those lines, it is what allowed me to put the negative words aside and to press on with what my heart and mind were screaming at me to do.

It was once I devoted myself to following these feelings that the true weight of that adage came to me. It was what allowed me to find this path. What enabled me to stick to the road, regardless of the difficulty I experienced from others, and from my own mind. I finally knew that I was different, and that I wouldn't have it any other way. Those that labeled me "weird" or "freak" were really paying my artistic creativity a compliment. They were saying that I was getting closer to my creative goals. I used those labels, not only as compliments, but as encouragement for me to continue on finding my skills, my voice.

Now, as I begin my final years of college, I pride myself on those characteristics that make me different. I reach in and draw on those feelings to give me, not only, the inspiration I need to create, but the aspiration I require to keep going with it. While growing up I've scoured the timeless works of Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Faulkner, and yet have not truly found that adages rival.

After all these years I am still hard-pressed to find words that evoke such a deep discussion in my mind, such a warm glow of comfort, as the ones I read on a t-shirt so long ago.