-LETTITOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regardless of what you are doing with your life at any given
moment, it helps to be prepared. Preparation is a mix of
collecting supplies, both mental and tangible, to aid with the
task at hand. And it just struck me that I am utterly unpre-
pared to write this week’s Lettitor.

Sure, I’ve got necessities at hand: pen and paper, a com-
puter, a gluttonous iBook packed with musical inspiration
and quotes for any occasion, a quickly dwindling bottle 12-
year-old Glenfiddich; I’ve got that stuff all covered.

It’s ideas that I lack. Nothing is really speaking to me this
week. I guess there’s always St. Patrick’s Day, but my Irish
blood just ain’t boiling anything up on that topic right now.
There was the serious challenge to Roe v Wade in South
Dakota last week. Abortion rights are something I’m usual-
ly passionate about, yet I’m feeling uninspired. There was
also a report of liquid water discovered on one of Saturn’s
moons this week, but still, even the prospect of extraterres-
trial life discovered in our Solar System isn’t making me
want to wax poetic. Basically, Pve no shenanigans to report,
no blood-curdling yells to voice. ’m tapped.

Which is how I’m assuming many of you out there in
college land are feeling around this point. P’ve noticed the
wild-eyed stares and unkempt hairstyles wandering aimlessly
through the corridors here at Douglas. I feel your exhaus-
tion. I feel your trepidation at finishing huge projects while
also preparing to write exams that will likely make or break
your GPAs. -

We're tired. We’re overworked and broke. We’re unable
to marry the idea of the coming spring with the reality of
the punishing tasks at hand. We’re basically screwed.

Will we crack under the pressure, throw up our hands,
and simply quit? Nay. That is not our destiny, good readers.
Will we buckle and decide that a lower grade is just going
to have to be okay this term? We did that last term, and
certain sacred promises whispered during last Christmas
break are precluding a repeat performance to that effect.
What we’ve got to do is buckle down and get to work.

Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a night in Hemingway’s
Clean Well-lighted Place tight about now. If you haven’t read
that short story, I’m going to go right ahead and suggest
that you do so, stat. Hemmingway once stated that he’d
“left an entire novel” out of that little five-page gem. Take
ten minutes and read it. It’s a break you deserve, a break
you may well need.

Ah, what the hell, while you at it, why don’t you just do
yourself a real favour, take a full half hour off, and peruse
this week’s Other Press? You'll get tuned in to some of the
news of the day, turned on to some great new music, and
maybe even have a chuckle or two. Come on; keep reading,
You know you want to....

—Colin Miley, Managing Editor

 

 

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