That’s the twin metaphor I woke up to this morning as Day 3 of this increasingly desperate work begins. These two metaphors didn’t appear out of nowhere, of course. They’ve been percolating at the back of my head the past couple of years when I began this doctoral program.
Intellectual work, it seems to me, is like exploring the roof of my mouth with the tip of my tongue. These two body parts are not readily visible to us — unless we wrench our mouths open in front of a large mirror. But they’re there — we know they’re there. The only way I can acquaint myself with what they’re like is through some kind of tactile exploration: Using my tongue, I can explore the roof of my mouth and discover its various parts with all their different shapes and textures. I form an increasingly clear image of it as I do this. And as I go about this project, I also end up getting to know my own tongue as I learn about its own shape, its own texture, its many sides–discovered only as I feel it against the roof of my mouth.
Odd metaphors, I concede. Some people may have been cringing, but these metaphors capture for me this experience of exploring ideas — initially ambiguous ideas that grow clearer only as I work with them, ideas through which I also get to know my own mind, its limits but hopefully also, its promise.
So if you wish, we could say that today, Day 3, will be a day devoted further to exploring the roof of my mouth with the tip of my tongue. And while I’m at it, again, if only to keep sane, it won’t hurt also occasionally to keep tongue against cheek.
strugglingSCHOLAR 