Say! What a lot of fish there are!

Earlier in the day I was thinking I should use this blog to work out some useful question that David P, a fellow student, asked me today about my dissertation. It was a really astute question: what happens to your research if you take the term relational out of relational generativity?

I answered him, kinda glibly, and then thought about it for the rest of the day. It really isn't about "how do we have generative conversations," even though that's kind of the way I've ended up shortening the description of what I'm doing to that well-meaning but so naive question "what's your dissertation about?" that comes from the dentist right before she wants to look in your mouth. (It's just as well I have a pat answer, because it doesn't look so good to just let your mouth gape open in the tradition of slack-jawed idiots everywhere).

Anyway, it IS about generative conversations, but the relational part is key. And I realized I can't really TRULY articulate it, yet. Is it about "the role of identity practices in constructing generative interaction?" Or is it about "how do generative interactions relate to our construction of self and other?" Can it be both? I can't quite puzzle through the implications of this. I keep grabbing at this image of binary stars, and know that it's in there somewhere, but I have a horrible feeling that this distinction I just noted is the thing that would sharpen what I'm doing. And until I can really get that, I'm sort of sprawling through this analysis.

I didn't really get very much done today. The morning was filled up with stuff (Age was still here, and I had an 8:00 - 9:30 conference call for a client project, and then I took A to the train, and talked to another client, and decided my rampaging obesity MUST be checked a bit and spun for half an hour, and had a phone call with the aforementioned David. Then I truly tried to hunker down, but only managed to write about 400 words, spinning my wheels, until I had to leave for the dentist.

The dentist was, thankfully, a kindly experience -- at my request, she gave me a temporary solution to the necessary crown, letting me do it after the dissertation work is done and I'm earning real money again. AND she didn't charge me anything for today.

Then I walked home and didn't fall on the ice, and was happy with the crisp air. Got some lime leaf chicken and tried to focus again... and ended up making notes to deepen that analysis I haven't really managed to synthesize into writing yet, fleshed out my record of references for how I arrived at my daisy models of my alpha couple. Not "dwelling in the data" as much as prodding the edges of it a little dolefully.

And now, 8:30 and I can only think in the cadences of Dr. Seuss. So...

Today is gone. Today was fun.
Tomorrow is another one.
Every day,
from here to there,
funny things are everywhere.