Even now when I re-read the extract I can recall the feeling of being awake to the moment of decision and being able to choose an alternative to what may have been an automatic response. Symbiosis We have already flagged up our concern with issues to do with the nature and role of data. I want now to consider the relation of data and data collection to the enquiry process as a whole. For me there is a sense that these elements of the enquiry are inextricably caught up with each other, that in the identification of relevant data I cannot help but reflect simultaneously on that data and consider its relation to other data. This data is compared to existing strands in my experience, and I notice jarring and resonance with previous interpretations.
New interpretations start to form.
One cannot be seen in isolation from another and work on one contributes to work on others. In this section I want to explore this symbiotic relationship between the existence and the development of data in the sense of its collection and role, the way a focus is identified and the validation of strands and interpretations. I start to create an image of this symbiosis, not at any asserted beginning, but by considering the exercise of capturing moments of energy from one's experience, in the form of anecdotes. I want to contend that these critical incidents are the most important to consider, although they may often be the moments that we habitually step round, avoid or choose not to see. In following this exercise through, such anecdotes can be worked on, by telling and retelling, by reading and rereading, in order to make them enterable.