I am on to the third exam question which is about the aesthetics of lived-experience. In the spring of my first year of PhD work, my family presented me with a little angel figure. She had wings and a book. Being the superstitious type, I began to be concerned when her wings fell off this past fall. Then, as I was organizing all of my books and resources for these exams, the figurine leapt from her spot on the ledge and dove into my desk. She lost her head somewhere in between methodology and philosophy. Poor dear. Is she now disembodied? Does she still posses an embodied mind? Can she manage without her mind in her head and all of its conscious creating processes? Can she even "mind" being wingless and voiceless? What does her seemingly disembodied state do to her angelic powers of protection with regard to my scholarly endeavors? Headless and wingless, can she still make her protection manifest? More importantly, do I believe she can? I believe her fracture is telling me it's time to write in my own voice with power and authority - and to do so despite my trembling. Now, how do I get from belief to action?
Can angels break? especially between methodology and philosophy? How does her or his, it's, physical representation or some might say embodimemnt allow for breakability? Does she or he exist beyond her or his ceramic physicality? How might an angel, as you conceive of angels, somatically engage the experience of breaking?. . .
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