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Bear with me a moment. Let’s muse a bit on, well, musing:
Muse
verb (used without object)
1. to
think or meditate in silence, as on some subject.
2. Archaic
. to gaze meditatively or wonderingly.
3. to
meditate on.
4. to
comment thoughtfully or ruminate upon.
(Thank
you, Dictonary.com!)
But we are a busy and noisy people. How can anyone find the
silence or time needed for the reflection that leads to anything resembling an
original thought? (I get this question a lot.) The only real answer is you have
to want it badly enough. However, the sort of silence that leads to meditative
wonder is less a lowered decibel level for any given span of time than it is a
stillness of spirit cultivated with practice that creates space for rumination.
It takes practice and intentionality.
But where does that new thought come from? From whence the muse? I believe the answer is hidden in the rumination. And here’s where the dictionary is once again helpful.
ru·mi·nate
verb (used without object)
2. to meditate or muse; ponder.
I have rarely seen a cow do much of anything but stand and
chew. Slowly. Occasionally, they sit. Standing or sitting, they appear to be looking
at you or the fence or the grass and sky at the same time, taking it all in, or
none of it, with a certain amount of pondering disinterest. And they do all of
this while they chew, and chew, in magnificent silence.
To chew on, over and over again, to ponder, ruminate, like a
cow… interesting. It is thinking, but not the type of thinking we are much
taught how to do in school (particularly not business school). It is an “inefficient”
kind of thought, one that does not start with the end in mind, but simply
starts with the one chewy subject and allows itself to be led by that starting
point. And after a first round of chewing, of going down the uncharted pathway,
the thinking goes back to the beginning and starts chewing again, tasting the
topic all over again, allowing for alternative paths.
I tend to do this type of thinking through my pen or
keyboard. I write it out and follow the path the words mark out for me.
Conversation can also provide this perfect pondering, if the participants are
patient with the silences, tolerant of non-linear thinking, and not looking for
an instant solution to a particular problem. Some of my most memorable moments
of friendship – and inspiration – have occurred through such perfectly messy
banter.
So, back to the beginning of our muse at hand. Let’s now
chew on the noun form of Muse for a moment:
noun
1. Classical
Mythology .
a. any
of a number of sister goddesses, originally given as Aoede (song), Melete
(meditation), and Mneme (memory), but latterly and more commonly as the nine
daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne who presided over various arts: Calliope (epic
poetry), Clio (history), Erato (lyric poetry), Euterpe (music), Melpomene
(tragedy), Polyhymnia (religious music), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy),
and Urania (astronomy); identified by the Romans with the Camenae.
2. (
sometimes lowercase ) the goddess or the power regarded as inspiring a
poet, artist, thinker, or the like.
The noun embodies the action of musing. Goddess, power, or
genius, it is that seemingly mysterious THING that inspires and characterizes
the poet, artist, or creative thinker.
I love that there are nine sister goddesses called muses,
representing a range of domain expertise from epic poetry to astronomy. Even
comedy gets its own muse! What it tells me is that there are certain core
disciplines that feed inspiration across all disciplines and stimulate the
musings of artists, poets, musicians, choreographers, comedians, and scientists
alike.
I like to think of it as the discipline of inefficient
thought. It is the patience of cattle that allows for the silence and the open
spaces and the chewing on over and over again. It is the genius that fearlessly
explores the inherently messy mind, not to put it in order, but to discover yet
another crumb to nibble.
So what about the lightning-in-a-bottle moment? I believe it
is a mystery we may never fully solve, but there are clues we can pick up along
the way. Surely it is magic, but a magic that comes to those ready and waiting.
And chewing.
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