March 18, 2025
Muses
Muses
“I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.” ― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Nigus Dawit
Date
March 18, 2025
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What are the prerequisites for creativity? Can anyone just partake in creativity? Of course! Everyone is imbued with the spirit to create regardless of who you are or where you might come from. After all, this is what ties us to the force responsible for creation and differentiates us from the other creatures that roam the earth; it’s why the bible says that humans were created in God’s image. In other words, by partaking in creation, we partake in some kind of dance with God, some kind of activity where we allow the creative energy of divinity to be actualized through us. In the words of Richard Taylor:
“Even the least creative among us are usually capable of something original, however innocuous it might be. But what is sad is the kind of happiness that is within the reach only of human beings should be attained by so few of them. And what is sadder still is that those who have no clear idea of what happiness is, or worse, themselves lack the resources to capture it, do not care. It is in some ways, almost as if they had not ever been born.”
But oftentimes, perhaps due to comparison in aesthetics of our creation to others, we might feel like our creation isn’t a “proper creation” or feel like it falls short. These differences in aesthetics are defined by mostly one’s upbringing, history and their consumption of other creations. But what is it that defines “proper creation?” Is there even such a thing and if so who is the judge? This is essentially the idea that fueled recent contemporary art movements. Because at the end, creation isn’t necessarily about the work that will be perceived in the standards of the “greats” or “experts” but it’s merely about the expression of the muses that are embedded within us. And how do the muses want to be expressed? They want to be expressed in play with no restriction, no judgment, no persecution. It’s picasso who said
“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child”
Now this might possibly lead to the famous philosophical topic of “then what is beauty or what could be considered art” but that is an unproductive question or atleast to the kind of inquiry we’re doing here. Because no one has a place to say for what can be considered art or creation– sure one can set a standard in accordance with certain rules or ideas they might have about what can be considered beautiful. In the end though, those rules are subjective and arbitrary. What we know for sure is one who partakes in the activity of creation and creates whatever they desire in however way they want is exercising their gift of co-creating in reality. They’ve become the vessel that allowed for the spirit of muses to come through them and that is enough.
It is a courageous task to exercise on this gift that we’ve been granted to, regardless of which muses have made their abode in your spirit, one must act and create in their given passion. One can even argue that it’s your duty and not doing so would not be different from trapping your spirit in a cell and refusing its call to come out. It’s why we feel like a child again when we partake in a creative act, when time stops and you’re in a state akin to playing– which serves as a reminder that part of this game we call life should be treated as nothing less than a cosmic play that we’re partaking in.
