Katherine Fusco
  • Home
  • Books
  • Essays
  • Scholarly Articles
  • c.v.
  • Works in Progress
  • Contact

The Mindful Academic Writer


A Blog on Practice

The Protective Egg--another post on powerful metaphors

4/22/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
It's getting to be the end of the semester. It's spring. Easter was last weekend. Exams are around the corner. Semester goals we set for ourselves are beginning to feel like cruel Sisyphean ordeals. The birds on campus are protecting new goslings and ducklings. T.S. Eliot called April the cruelest month. And as far as human feelings on campus go, Old Thomas Stearns seems to have it about right. It's a time of bad human feelings. But, it's also a time of new life for the birds, plants, and animal life around us. Perhaps that's why you find yourself resenting the geese that defecate all over the sidewalks, they are in the time of new life, while we feel another year dying off, and we may not be so sorry to see it go.

In writing this blog, I've been thinking about metaphors that do "work," whether or not we believe in them. Most yoga poses have metaphors for their names--the ubiquitous down dog, etc. These metaphorical names help us move our bodies into strange postures, they help us train our mind-body connection, honing our proprioceptive capacities.

Powerful metaphors can work off the mat as well. And egg that is so much a part of springtime can be one of these. PIndasana (embryo pose) and Garba Pindasana (embryo in the womb pose) (http://www.ashtangayoga.info/practice/the-finishing-sequence/item/pindasana/) are postures in which the yogi balls up, embodying the sealed off safety of the womb. For the ducks and geese on campus (I teach on an especially foul-filled campus), the egg encloses the chick, protecting it from the world's harshness until it's developed enough to sustain the battering that exists outside of the shell.

While junior faculty (or anyone else who may feel vulnerable) are not baby chicks, the egg can be a powerful metaphor for getting through particularly difficult meetings and encounters. There are moments in life when we must encounter people with what some call "toxic" energy (whether these are students, colleagues
, or people we live with). Bad energy can be running especially high this time of year.

The metaphor of the egg shell, which is strong and protecting, offers a strategy for such encounters. Before entering such meetings
(committee meetings, office hours, faculty meetings, etc.), we can close our eyes and picture enclosing ourselves within the eggshell (or a bubble, or light, whatever works) and saying I am protected here (or, my bubble keeps me safe, whatever affirmation isn't to dorky or weird for you). From within this bubble, we can see the meeting play out as on a screen, without taking the heightened emotions  that play out into our own psychic space. I say that this might be especially important for junior faculty because we are still growing into this profession, and for me, at least, it's important that bitterness is not part of the professional persona I grow into. Though April may be the cruelest month, there are metaphors we can use to ensure we hatch safely some day.




0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All


    Blogroll
    Get a Life, PhD
    getalifephd.blogspot.ie/
    GradHacker
    www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker
    The Professor is In
    theprofessorisin.com/pearlsofwisdom/
    The Thesis Whisperer
    thesiswhisperer.com/
    Tenure, She Wrote
    tenureshewrote.wordpress.com/

    ​

    Archives

    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from Ian D. Keating, Port of San Diego, Hey Paul Studios, smerikal, philosophygeek, brian.gratwicke, shirokazan, Maria Eklind, h.koppdelaney, ☺ Lee J Haywood, ninacoco, VinothChandar, apartmentshowcase, dickdotcom, Allagash Brewing, medchedli, flying_7ucy, taymtaym, blondinrikard, katerha, blumenbiene, Helga Weber, juhansonin, Evil Erin, danajackson58, Paul L Dineen, quinn.anya, Jarosław Pocztarski, Seabird NZ, wwarby, anshumanharsh, jenny downing, anna gutermuth, MacBeales, peddhapati, GreenRavenPhotography.com, gailhampshire, torbakhopper, cyberpunk65, Derek Bridges, Albion Europe ApS, Rennett Stowe, Daveness_98, Drew Coffman, 42andpointless, VinothChandar, Average Jane, h.koppdelaney, auspices, r.nial.bradshaw, Matt Callow, Lex Kravetski, nSeika, Toffee Maky, Rob.Bertholf, ilovememphis, Xtreme Xhibits, chrysav.koutroumanou, striatic, It'sGreg, Michiel Thomas, Maria Eklind, stimpsonjake, ikewinski, seyed mostafa zamani, mugwumpian, jude hill
  • Home
  • Books
  • Essays
  • Scholarly Articles
  • c.v.
  • Works in Progress
  • Contact