The Modern Day Muse in a Relationship (women, daughter, partner)
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Maybe this is old-fashioned, but I have always felt that one of my roles was to inspire my partner to create great things - to be his muse. I have felt this in all my relationships. I also look to my partner for inspiration - to be my muse in my own creativity. For us, creativity is not limited to fine arts, but encompasses the art of business.
How do you define the modern day muse?
Do you feel one needs a muse in life? Or do you feel inspiration is more internal or less concentrated on one figure?
Are you a muse to your partner? If so, how do you inspire your partner?
How does your partner inspire you?
BTW, I think a man in a modern relationship can be a muse, despite the following definition from mythology...
Muse
a woman, or a force personified as a woman, who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist.
(in Greek and Roman mythology) each of nine goddesses, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who preside over the arts and sciences.
The Muses were both the embodiments and sponsors of performed metrical speech: mousike (hence the English term "music") was just "one of the arts of the Muses". Others included Science, Geography, Mathematics, Philosophy, and especially Art, Drama, and inspiration. Some authors invoke Muses when writing poetry, hymns or epic history.
The invocation typically occurs at or near the beginning, and calls for help or inspiration, or simply invites the Muse to sing through the author. Muse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I consider myself more of a cheerleader than a muse, in that I try to inspire happiness and optimism rather than creativity (he's not particularly artistic). However, I did name two kittens Clio and Melpomene.
I think if you're in a healthy relationship, the other person helps you to be the person you want to be and to accomplish the things you want to accomplish. I think a good relationship should be inspiring by definition.
I think if you're in a healthy relationship, the other person helps you to be the person you want to be and to accomplish the things you want to accomplish. I think a good relationship should be inspiring by definition.
This. It's a genderless role. Each member of the partnership should support, help and/or cheer on the other.
My partner should be inspired with or without me, just as I should be inspired to do great things in life with or without him. Moral support is of course amazing, but if you can only accomplish great things if you have a special someone to inspire you to do so, it doesn't say much for individuality.
"Muse" seems to lack depth (classically, the muse's ONLY function was to inspire).
I prefer a more contemporary, reciprocal take, such as the others have pointed out...supporting one another. The "muse-artist" conceit seems, by contrast, rather one-sided.
Interesting answers. I feel more like a muse, not a cheerleader. That is, I feel internally part of the process of inspiring my partner to create something, rather than a cheerleader on the sidelines. I think the muse role is more encompassing - they don't just give positive feedback/cheer them on, but they use techniques to inspire their partner to take initiative, take different paths, question ideas, to think, to create, to dream...
I see a cheerleader as more passive in the process - another positive spectator rather than participator. Maybe I see the muse as more like a coach on the field. Does that make sense? I think many great men and women got where they are because they had a very effective muse in their life. Their muse was instrumental in providing inspiration and guidance.
How often do people consider how their potential partner may inspire them to do greater things?
My partner should be inspired with or without me, just as I should be inspired to do great things in life with or without him. Moral support is of course amazing, but if you can only accomplish great things if you have a special someone to inspire you to do so, it doesn't say much for individuality.
"Muse" seems to lack depth (classically, the muse's ONLY function was to inspire).
I prefer a more contemporary, reciprocal take, such as the others have pointed out...supporting one another. The "muse-artist" conceit seems, by contrast, rather one-sided.
Yes, individual inspiration is important, but I think even greater things can be accomplished by a muse partnership, where both partners serve as muses to each other at times. I think people often look externally for muses (e.g. life coaches, pastors, teachers, bosses, authors, musicians, etc.) when their greatest power may be found in a muse relationship with their romantic partner.
There were 9 mythical muses, not just limited to the fine arts/music/poetry but encompassing math, science, philosophy, oration. I think the ancient concept of muse is under-appreciated today as an inspiration and success strategy, though I think many successful people utilize it.
How often do people consider how their potential partner may inspire them to do greater things?
Emotions dictate a lot of creativity in people. It really takes one to see things differently that would otherwise not be seen as creative events. Personally, I'm a creative person, and I've realized that my life would suck without it. I get inspired by both terrible events and happy events that occur in my life...it helps me create new music. However, there is a backbone of creativity in me as well. I do not need events to occur to be creative, I just am...in everything I do really.
I think the real question should be how do I spark someones creative nature? We are all creative in different ways...the problem is most people do not know what they are creative at or what they even like. Instead people are more concerned about the creativity of others and wrap their lives in that than discovering their own creativity.
Emotions dictate a lot of creativity in people. It really takes one to see things differently that would otherwise not be seen as creative events. Personally, I'm a creative person, and I've realized that my life would suck without it. I get inspired by both terrible events and happy events that occur in my life...it helps me create new music. However, there is a backbone of creativity in me as well. I do not need events to occur to be creative, I just am...in everything I do really.
I think the real question should be how do I spark someones creative nature? We are all creative in different ways...the problem is most people do not know what they are creative at or what they even like. Instead people are more concerned about the creativity of others and wrap their lives in that than discovering their own creativity.
This is true. Many of our most creative can be tortured - they are at emotional extremes (positive and negative). I am also a creative person. I've been told this my entire life and am at my very best when I am in the process of creating something new (not so good at the perpetual maintenance of things though). I often have to create an extreme event that will inspire me - travel, a tight deadline/upcoming performance, risky pastimes, extreme sports, becoming poor.... I know I create these extreme events to become inspired.
But it is healthier IMO for me to transfer the inspiration creation to a muse - my partner - so I do not have to create these extreme situations in my life. Try to use my muse to spark my creativity, and I do the same for him. Maybe only an event (not a muse) is necessary to spark that initial idea, but it can be the muse that continues to inspire throughout the entire creation process.
A cheerleader whips the crowd (the fans) into enthusiasm, whence presumably the fans’ cheering will hearten the players. Cheerleaders do not directly inspire the players – and in fact, they might be a distraction.
A muse on the other hand give the artist no merely inspiration, but cause to believe that his art benefits from a driving purpose, a reason to create beyond mere beauty or the plaudits of an adoring public. A muse is a higher form of appreciation, beyond that of readers, museum-goers, patrons, customers or fans. A muse is semi-literally a connection between the artist and the divine breath that sustains and animates the art.
I do very much enjoy muse-like qualities in a potential partner. It thrills me if she enjoys my writing, noting not merely its aesthetic effect, but the subtle details that I insert for consumption by the discerning, the double-meanings and allusions. I’m an engineer, yet even as engineers we write considerably, sometimes of a technical nature, sometimes not at all. A brilliant muse would see the literary beauty in purely technical work (if the work is of sufficient quality), and the representational beauty when the technologist casts aside his vocational trappings and writes simply about the swirling snows and the weighed-down tree branches groaning under the burden during a fierce winter.
So, yes – what the OP describes is essential. I could not have an enduring relationship with a woman who eschews the role of a muse.
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