Friday, December 6, 2013
It's like...
As Richard Wilbur demonstrates in Advice to a Prophet, metaphor, and the emotions and understandings that it imparts, are vital to our understanding--our knowledge--of ourselves and the world we inhabit. For Sunday evening at 9:30, please share two metaphors by which you define your world. Return to Douglas Hofstadter's definition: what are "the filters through which we scan and sort reality?" To help you on your way, read through the handout of illustrative quotations elaborating on emotion as a way of knowing. Explain the nature of the metaphors you select, what functions they serve for you, and their shortcomings--what do they filter out?
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I think that the first metaphor that I see the world through is my childhood. I think that every childhood memory is somehow deeply engrained in our beings so that when we smell chocolate chip cookies we associate it with grandmas, or home, or comfort. "The filters through which we scan and sort reality". What a great way to put it. In childhood, everything is a new experience. I think theres innocence and trust, and then a lot of emotions at their simplest. As we grow, the emotions and ideas get more complex, and so its easiest to see the world through the simplicity of our childhoods? Maybe I'm not saying this right. Hm. Children recognize themselves more than adults, maybe because they haven't defined themselves yet. They just are, and so our basic psyche relates back to that when in doubt. I think. Maybe. Huh. I hope this makes sense.
ReplyDeleteAnother metaphor through which I sort my reality is experiences and memory. They are related to childhood, but on a much deeper level. As we grow, we put thoughts together and try new ways of doing things and purposely make our parents angry because its a way to expand. These experiences are what we fall back on, just as they are what teach us in new situations. Experience provides the basis; we remember and adjust in order to succeed at new experiences.
Both of these have to do with experiences, memories, and the emotions behind them. As human beings, we associate in order to remember. I think that the memories are what makes us up, and so the main metaphors and experiences are our memories, particular the simplest, smallest, ones.
The metaphors that are very close to my heart are Jamaican proverbs or adages. Growing up with my grandmother, she has imparted a few to my brother and me some of which I have only recently come to appreciate. One of my favorite is the term saying, “one one coco full basket." This term at face value is saying that by placing one fruit at a time into a basket, the basket will eventually become full. My grandmother in her younger days would work on a plantation and do farm work so most of the proverbs are related to farm work or food. When this proverb is analyzed it means that in order to achieve things in life one must be patient, slow down and take one step at a time. It also means that no matter how small something is, if I save it, overtime it will be abundant. This is one metaphor I use to govern my life. Ever since I was a child I would save as small what is equal to 2 American cents. While this amount seems very small I took pride in my saving because I know that if I added to it each day eventually I would have enough money to purchase something I desired. This saying can also be related to other aspects of life and many lessons can be learned from it depended on one’s understanding and interpretation of the literal phrase. It can also be applied to my school life. At times I feel frustrated and overwhelmed with work and feel like quitting. Also the situation becomes more frustration when I realize that in order to be a surgeon I have a lot of similar years ahead of me. Whenever I feel like this, the proverb gives me comfort and hope. It reminds me to be patients and wait for my reward in life.
ReplyDeleteA common metaphor that is used in Jamaica is to refer to Policemen as “Babylon”. Most people in Jamaican slums are not very fond policemen or the law. It was reggae icon Bob Marley that originally made the term “Babylon” popular and used it in reference to white oppressors. The term has over the years transformed into the meaning an oppressor or anyone trying to hold or hinder one from success. Stem in from that word the notion of “chanting down Babylon” means to rise above your oppressors and achieve success. I have personalized this phrase and made it my own. In my life there are many “Babylon’s” (unfavorable situations that make life seem difficult). I am determined to take my grandmothers advice and rise above these situations and negative people and live my life in a way that is pleasing to me.
Oh my Sherica! The word "Babylon" is also used most of the times in my country, Rwanda. We use it as a way of saying that someone is a traitor. I'm not sure but I think that the word is derived from the Bible because the Babylonians betrayed God. I really use that wrd a lot.
DeleteMetaphor 1: Parents are the gardeners who water their children to grow into beautiful plants.
ReplyDeleteMetaphor 2: Emotional scars are chambers in ones soul that are enclosed by a steel heart.
(I decided to make my own metaphors)
Metaphor 1:
This is the metaphor that I truly stand by because I truly believe that if someone has a child they should take responsibility and take care of it no matter what. This is in relation to me because I know that my parents do everything and will do anything to make my life successful. Instead of putting themselves first, they put me first, as it should be. If I had a child it would be the same way. I feel that if a parent does not raise their child to be a person of good character, then what good is having the child in the first place? I think that the child that parents create should be a reflection of them and their character (hopefully good), because in reality a child is a reflection or mirror or their parents.
Metaphor 2:
This metaphor does not pertain to my life as much, but it does pertain to people in my life. With this metaphor I wanted to show that if someone has multiple scars around their soul, it could hinder their personality in a way. It could change it for the better or worse, depending on their situation. Everyone has their breaking point and if that breaking point is shattered something could switch. That person may start to close people out from themselves and keep to themselves. I wanted to portray that life can certainly have an emotional toll on someone that could change their life forever (good or bad).
Thinking about this assignment, I was struck with the question of what a metaphor actually is. I realized we use them much more in everyday life then I had expected. However, I realized there are two metaphors by which I see my life.
ReplyDelete“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree”- Albert Einstein. I do admit this is something I found through my research for this blog post. However, I realized this metaphor is something I live my life by. I am not religious. Well, maybe I am. I guess I’m not sure at all. But I am sure that whatever ‘God’ there is, whatever’ Art’ we live, and whatever ‘Science’ we choose to learn and acknowledge comes from the same ‘tree’. Whatever God people believe in, we must have all come from the same one. It would be impossible if we didn’t- at least in my mind. The ‘art’ part of this metaphor can be interpreted in different ways- depending on one’s definition of ‘Art’. For me, it means any product of creativity. Creativity for me is the human minds ability to produce something unique, intelligent, beautiful, dark, scary, funny etc. And science, well it all must be linked together or my ESS textbook is corrupt. But seriously, in my opinion all science does come from the same ‘tree’. It’s all linked together through a leading spark. I think that the nature of this metaphor is belief. This metaphor can be religious, creative, or scientific based on ones interpretation of it. Essentially, this metaphor explores the belief of life the way Albert Einstein sees it. Therefore when others read it, their beliefs will create their own definition of religion, art, and science.
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor”-Truman Capote. This is another metaphor I found while researching for this blog post. Again, this is not something I had ever read before, however, I have been following my entire life. Without failure there would be no success-a least in my mind. We don’t know the feeling of failure unless we have tasted success (or whatever that quote is). Anyway, this metaphor is my credo in many aspects of my life. In riding, I always have to remind myself that failure will always help me find my way to success, if not then how would I know how to improve? IN school-well with all of my failures of IB art projects…Just Kidding MS. MAHONEY. In school I have learned that once you have gotten a D, an A feels like you’re eating a birthday cake (For those of you who take IB art…you know what I mean). Socially, there are some failures of friendships/relationships, but then the good ones end up being much better. I believe that all of my success that have come from failures would not have been as great as they were had I not failed the first time. The nature of this metaphor is the creation of success (I’m not really sure what the nature of a metaphor is) But, I say this because the use of the word ‘condiment ‘and ‘flavor’ is using cooking terms to show the meaning of success. So in my mind, this metaphor is saying that failure is something you need to make success.
The first metaphor through which I describe my world is my mother’s definition of the world, “The world is change, and change is a fact of life. Life is an interesting journey that can take you anywhere. You can never predict if you will rise or fall and you can never assure yourself that your position or conditions in which you live at the moment, are going to stay the same. The darkness may turn into light and the light might turn into darkness. The world cannot be depicted in terms of its future, except for its past.” My mother explained to me what she meant through the game that I liked to play. When I was a little child, I used to play a game called, “gatebe gatoki”. While playing the game, there was always someone who would instruct us to stand or sit down. You would never know if the instructor would tell you to sit or stand the next time. Coming back to my metaphor of how I describe the world, I can say that it is related to this game because my main understanding is that the way I see the world might change at any time. I might find the world as an interesting place to live in today because of the good conditions that I’m in and find it as a bad place tomorrow because of the bad conditions or situations that I’m facing. The changes in one’s life may be positive or negative and you have to accept them the way they are. I also believe that these changes are also what describe how people find the world. For example, Bill Gates who happens to be one of the richest people on earth today might turn out to be one of the poorest people tomorrow, who knows? This means that we can never be a 100% sure of where and how we will be Knowing that a change of how I live can happen at any time, I live knowing that the world can always be viewed differently by me at any point in my life. According to me, the world is defined according to the circumstances that I’m facing which may change at any time. In other words, the world alone is change.
ReplyDeleteOther metaphors in which I can describe the world are the short stories that I was told when I was young. They were always interesting stories which had hidden meanings in them. I admit that I focused on the interesting parts of those stories but not on the important lesson that I had to learn through them. Just as we said in class, tells of myths and legends always have a hidden meaning which take children like me, a while for them to understand. As I went growing up, I started discovering that those stories or tells that I was told mostly by my grandmother, have profound meanings to the day to day life and the world in which we live. I learnt a lot from these short stories which impacted on my understanding of the world in a positive or a negative way.
"Besides the cerebral knowledge we all possess, the words and ideas stored in our heads, there is a deeper knowledge held within the tissue of our bodies. It is a somatic, physical knowing which comes from direct experience. This is the knowledge of faith, of emotion, of the gut feeling" (Harris, 'Sacred Ecology'). I chose this quote from the emotional ways of knowing hand out for two reasons. The first is because I really identify with the concept of emotion as a way of knowing. The second, is because of the last phrase of the quote. When it comes down to it, all people have the power of "the gut feeling." It is a very strong force that resides in the soul. In my every day life, and especially in questioning circumstances, I tend to follow my gut feeling. I believe that if there is one thing someone can trust it is that. And the idea of following a gut feeling, a truly amazing way of knowing, is something that I try to live my life by--no matter what any other influence may bring to the table.
ReplyDeleteMy second metaphor is one that I made up. It pertains to my current life, and the experiences that my fellow peers may be encountering as well: My soul is punctured and refurbished, exposed to the battleground…as the blinding shield of youth falls down. When we as teenagers are going through life and seeing it in so many enlightened ways, it can feel like a battleground. We must learn to take care of ourselves in this transition between childhood and adulthood. I feel very strongly about my metaphor for life because of my current situation and the way that I have been living through adolescence. There are many obstacles in life that have altered my personality and the being that I am. Also, growing up means that I am exposed to the world in a new light. I am no longer a child with a very innocent view, but rather a maturing young adult trying to grasp the realities placed in front of me.
The first metaphor with which I define my world is a building made from semi-transparent glass, and I stand on the ground outside of the build. This is an explanation of different perspectives through principle. I think a difference in principle is the source and justification of disagreements, and definitely how one sees and judges the world. Principles can be the source of many differences between people, and thinking about principle helps me understand a person who disagrees with me in an argument. Principle is at the base of emotion and perspective; it decides emotion, because it is an undeniable part of one’s identity, even if a person has no specific principle to go by. A person with principle can try to see a space through many different perspectives, but principles are not as easily changed as perspective, because our perspectives are constantly changing depending on our knowledge, but principle creates emotion, which is the base to knowledge—according to Plato. So if I am on the ground outside of the house, I can only walk around the house in attempt to complete my picture of the world, whereas someone, who is standing on top of the roof of the house, can only see the house from the top. Depending on where a person stands, and how far they stand from the house, they will be presented with a different view of the house. Going back to principle and how we filter the world, if I believe in a principle, for example, I will only think and judge by love, not by hate, my opinions will be shaped by it. Living by a principle helps me make consistent choices and judgments.
ReplyDeleteThe second metaphor that I use to define my world is a foggy forest that is the habitat of many kinds of birds. This is inspired from a common Chinese proverb translated, as “There are all kinds of birds in a big forest.” I added the fog to illustrate the uncertainty and unpredictability of my world. I think that if I filter the world through this metaphor, then, I would be able expect and be open to all sorts of “strange” people and things. I imagine myself navigating the forests and seeing all sorts of birds, and maybe identify similar looking birds by using metaphors, and the more I navigate the forest, the more kinds of birds I will see, and become less surprised each time that I see a new kind of bird. What this metaphor filters out is understanding the kinds of birds, I would only expect them, but not try to understand them, in which case, I would apply the previous metaphor.
I had a lot of difficulty trying to think of a metaphor that I see my life through.. Instead, I began thinking of things that are important to me or that I have been taught to give more priority too. Things like education/ learning from mistakes,, family/friends, equality and general happiness are things I find most important for me to maintain a happy life.I attempted to make/find metaphors that can portray 2 of these themes.
ReplyDelete“When you know better you do better.” -Maya Angelou. I actually tried to make my own metaphor for this, but I could not seem to find the words to express what I wanted to express about education. Growing up, it was instilled in me that education is the key to all closed doors, and that once I have it, I will be able to achieve so much more. I am not exactly sure what the “nature of the metaphor” means, but it is based on education and its significance. This metaphor while obviously relating to emotions as a way of knowing, also relates to reason and logic to me, because from what I see logic is what allows me to see education in this light. If I am understanding this phrase correctly, the shortcoming of this metaphor/ what it filters out is the idea and personal belief that education is key to doing better and eventually achieving success.
Realting to the topic of education, I feel strongly about mistakes and learning from them. Again, after a while of thinking, I eventually settled on finding this quote, “Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.”- Oscar Wilde. This has a similar nature to the previous metaphor I found. this metaphor to me, serves the purpose of describing the significance of mistakes and how they transition into success no matter if it only provides a little improvement or a lot. Experience is what makes someone wise, but what people learn from their mistakes are what cause their experiences and future success. This metaphor filters out and emphasizes the idea that while experience is what many look for and wish to gain, the original first step is making a mistake, then using your newly found education of what does/doesn’t work to turn the mistake into experience and ultimately into success.
The metaphor I chose is “Education is the sunlight that causes success to blossom.” I decided to narrow the word world down to mean my student world. In life I view the student world as a place where if you want success, you have to work for it. This may be true about the wider world in any aspect of life, but particularly when it boils down to school work, success in life first starts with success in education. This metaphor in particular appealed to my emotion to bring forth my knowledge on the relationship between education and success, because the same way as how sunlight enables a flower to bloom, education enables success to flourish as well. Also as Arnold Bennett quoted, “There can be no knowledge without emotion,” I’m almost sure that every students has experienced the horrible feeling you get from failing. This feel of guilt and sorrow enables us to work harder so we won’t fail which increases our knowledge through education to determine our success. This can be compared to the flowers, they may not have literal emotions but as humans we can personify through visual imagery of how a flower looks without sunlight, that there must be a positive meaning i.e. their beauty they bring to earth when they bloom, as to why they grow towards the sunlight.
ReplyDeleteAnother one of my favorite metaphors is one of religion. “Happy are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb” (Rev.21:1-2). This metaphor is indirectly reflecting how lucky those who follow the teachings of Christ will be because they will make it to heaven. Individuals who embrace Christianity use this metaphor to urge individuals to live a good life in order to be invited to the ‘wedding feast’ or heaven where the lamb is, the lamb being Jesus. This characterizes my religion based world, and personally encourages me to live a good Christian life in order for me to go to heaven. The metaphor itself appeals to our emotions by starting off with saying that we will be happy to be in heaven with Jesus, which pushes us to gain this happiness.
I found Richard Wilbur’s Advice to a Prophet a very insightful piece of work (after it was translated into more understandable English) because it accurately explained the role of metaphors in life. Before reading it and wholly learning about what metaphors were as a device, I would have just said that metaphors are a way to compare things. Now I know about the importance of metaphors and how often they are used.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, one metaphor that I can use to describe life is a game of Volleyball. In Volleyball everyone has jobs, both individually and collectively as a team. The same goes for us in life. You want to do your job as thoroughly as possible. Whether you are a hitter, a setter, or a passer, you have a job to do in order for the game to go on, and your job also affects others’ jobs as well as the level of playing of the team(humanity) as a whole. Another way Volleyball relates to life is the fast pace and busyness of the game. After you do your job on the court, there is always something else to do. There are not any long periods of time where you can take. After you hit a ball over, you quickly go to you defensive spot to cover for the ball to come back to you. In life, things come at you randomly and in unpredicted ways. Anything can happen at any given point in time, so you must be ready. This is a metaphor for me because I PLAY Volleyball, therefore I understand how it works. This will not be an effective metaphor for a person who does not understand the game of Volleyball because they do not know how it works, so it would fulfill the function of it further explaining life.
Another metaphor that defines my world is the saying “The world is your oyster”. This means that the world is whatever you want it to be, your life is whatever you want it to be like. It basically assures that one designs their own things- their future, their year, their choices. Comparing the world to an Oyster makes the world look more focused on one thing because that is how an oyster is shaped. It encloses something (the subject person). This metaphor gets me to see the world in a different way; it gets me to think of myself as the focal point, and the world in regards to me.
One metaphor that defines my world is “Experience is the teacher of all things” - Julius Caesar. This metaphor expresses exactly what I think life is all about, cherishing each experience that one has in life because one can learn so much from them. In my opinion, experience is the best way to learn something; when going through an experience one learns about that particular thing that they are going through and they develop their own opinions and way to deal with it and they can can apply the things they learn to similar situations. I think that whether an experience bad or good, there are always so many things to learn from them. This defines my world, because it is something that I really try to go by, especially with my belief that “everything happens for a reason”. I try to always try to gain things from what I go through in life. This metaphor allows me to filter out what I can learn, in order to absorb. I think this metaphor includes emotion, perspective and logic.
ReplyDeleteA second metaphor that defines my world is, “mistakes are the portals of discovery” - James Joyce. This kind of goes along with my previous metaphor and how there is something to learn from every experience that one has. In my opinion, mistakes are one of the most important experiences to learn from. They allow for deep thought and things to gain for future experiences. This metaphor includes the need for perspective, emotion, and logic as well and filters out right from wrong and what to learn from that. Like other experiences, mistakes can hold you back and make you fear things to come, but if one choses to learn from them, they can allow for learning about what is right and wrong for you personally. I think that if you learn from your mistakes, that particular mistake shouldn’t happen today, but nobody is perfect, so of course we are going to mistakes all throughout our lives. I try to live by this metaphor as well because instead of being held back by my mistakes, I try to move forward and learn from the experience.
When thinking about two metaphors that define my world, a few popped up in my mind. My metaphors aren’t cliché ones, but more personal ones from my past.
ReplyDeleteA very prominent metaphor that my dad always has said to me (keep in mind he is a priest…) is “God made you the way you are on purpose” or “the good lord didn’t make mistakes”, or something to that extent. It usually changes a bit in wording depending on the situation, but it always conveys the same principles. I find this metaphor to really control how I think about myself, in a positive light. In summary, the metaphor means that you should be okay with who you are as a person. Although this metaphor applied to me as a seventh grader, who wouldn’t stop straightening my hair, and later realized that I was fine with it curly, this also has a deeper meaning to me. I cannot only apply this to my physical appearance, but also myself as a person.
The second metaphor I chose came from a sign that hung on my grandma’s kitchen cupboard. It was a small wooden sign that said “Grandma’s busy, take a cookie” (It had 3 little plastic cookies that you could take, very interactive and fun). The sign was at my eye level as a 3 year old, but it’s been engrained in my head since then, partially because it was fun, partially because it’s meaning stuck with me. Although it sounds cheesy and unimportant, I found this sign to be very beneficial to myself growing up. The metaphor showed to me, in a simple way, that patience was key to everything, and that even though you might have to wait 20 minutes (which is a life time to a 3 year old), you eventually get what you want in the end (which was obviously grandma). As funny as it sounds, whenever I’m in a situation where I’m not patient, I will think of this metaphor in my head as a reminder to wait.
Both of these metaphors can be seen as childish at first glace, but I think that metaphors for children often tell crucial lessons, just in a simplified way. The purpose of them is to teach children, at a young age, life lessons. My first metaphor has taught me to look through a different lens at not only myself, but other people. My second has taught me to be patient, which has changed my perspective of everything around me.
Metaphor 1: Chasing your dreams
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love this metaphor and I believe that it describes my life appropriately. My whole life, I have been taught to chase my dreams and go after what I want, and that is what I do. I have chased my dreams in the past by applying to Stoneleigh. I'm not going to lie, 99% of the reason I applied to Stoneleigh was the riding. I knew that I wanted riding to be a part of my life forever, but I didn't know in what way. I had dreams to be able to ride forever and I believed that being at Stoneleigh would give me the opportunity to do that and figure out in what way riding be significant in my life. I chased my dreams as a rider to get into Stoneleigh as I do so today. Being at Stoneleigh I now know that I want to go far in the world of riding. Going to a Rolex Three-Day Eventing competition as a rider is a dream I will chase until I have finally succeeded. I try to make decisions in my riding career that will lead me to success in the lofty goal I have set for myself. I also chase my dream of one day becoming a singer. Although it is a very difficult and chance-y field to be in, it is something that I know I want to do. It's a dream I have had since I was a little girl and I chase it everyday. By taking voice lessons, writing songs, and talking with people who can help me reach this goal. Although one cannot physically run their heart out to chase a dream, or a thought, this metaphor perfectly describes the steps people take to achieve even the most insane goals. It describes that hard work is what is needed to be successful in what one wishes to do.
Metaphor 2: Pick yourself up when you fall down
Following a similar topic of going after what you want, this metaphor describes how you cannot give up. Often, when one works to succeed, there is a depressingly large amount of failure before they get to the goals they set. I've experienced more often than not when riding. Physically I have had to lift myself out of the water out cross-country, and get back on, but this also is true, figuratively. Especially in riding, I have had incredibly horrible days, weeks, and sometimes months! Although it is extremely frustrating, I know that once the bad days are over, an amazing ride will eventually shine through. So all of those dressage errors, rails down in stadium, and refusals cross country for months on end finally seem worth it when you get the dressage test in the 20s, the clean stadium round, the killer cross-country ride, and the blue ribbon. Day in and day out I have had to learn to pick myself up after every bad ride because I know that it will all be worth it in the end.
I think jigsaw puzzles are able to describe the world I live in. Puzzles are composed of so many pieces which represents different people and events that I would encounter in my life. It takes time to find the two pieces that match each other, just like it takes time for me to accept facts and people appear in my world. When two pieces fit together, you just leave it there and find more pieces that fit around them and make the whole picture bigger. In the real life, my experiences accumulate and make my inner world gain more and grow stronger. At the beginning, I would not be able to know what I would get after I finish. I make mistakes, feel confused, and lose confidence. After sorting things out, I grow. In the process of solving puzzles, it is inevitable to lose several pieces. These lost pieces are the people that disappear in my life. People die. People break up. People leave. Losing them can never be made up. There is always a position for each of them. However, I can still finish the puzzle without them. After finishing a puzzles, I will be able to see the whole picture. There will be small scattered holes, but they don’t really affect the whole picture. As for my world, there are flaws and imperfections. I believe when I finish the puzzles of my life, I would be very content, proud and become absolutely wise. The shortcomings of seeing my life as puzzles is that puzzles are flat. It is sort of boring and it is only one picture which is designed. One could only get one rectangular picture(in most cases). Real life is never destined. People are able to control what they get at the end.
ReplyDeleteThe second metaphor that I use to define my world is a shirt. When I first got the shirt, I loved it. I was always happy when I wore it. It is just like my childhood. I did not know the world a lot but I loved it. Everything seemed good. I doubt if one day I would hate it. As I wear it several times, I start to see the problems of it, like it makes my arms look fat or the cuffs get dirty too easily. All sorts of problems start to occur. Now as a teenager, I have been able to see the dark side of the world. I will no longer love my world as much as I did when I was a child. These changes are irreversible. Go back to the shirt. Once I find out the shirt do not fit me so well, I find ways to make it look better on me. If it makes me look fat, I would put on a jacket outside or just lose some weight. In the real world, I change myself to fit in the world. I saw the quote yesterday saying that everyone has different masks to choose and to wear when facing different people or things. Honestly, I try to put on masks to cover the truest self, just like using a jacket to cover my fat. Furthermore, sometimes I feel the shirt make me look good but sometimes it doesn’t. It all depends on how I feel that day. Similarly, I sometimes love the world and sometimes hate it. This metaphor filters out the fact that shirts get old. The world never get old. Contrarily, it gets newer everyday because of life.
The first metaphor that I can define my world is "the steering wheel is grasped by your hand". My mom taught me the metaphor since I was little, and she allowed me to choose many things independently. When I was in elementary school, she trained me to choose the cloth every morning by myself. When I was not happy in the old high school, she let me to make my choice either stay or transfer back. I learnt how to choose and how is the consequence serious. I also learnt that I need to take the responsibility of my future. I analysis each choice, consider comprehensively which is the most important one, and hypothesis the outcome in order to avoid me to be regret.
ReplyDeleteThe second metaphor that I can define my world is "some people is you cancer; some people is your sneeze; and some people can only have meal together". I read this sentence from a book. My mom discussed this problem that I had last summer. I spent too much time to social so that I could not study with a peace mind. I learnt that not everybody deserve to be your friend. Everybody has their work to do, and you need to spend time with real friends who can give you good advises and help you when you need it.
One metaphor that I have taken a liking to was spoken by Malcom X. ““It's just like when you've got some coffee that's too black, which means it's too strong. What do you do? You integrate it with cream, you make it weak. But if you pour too much cream in it, you won't even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it puts you to sleep.”
ReplyDeleteHe is talking about life here, and I think that this metaphor is very powerful. It shows how life can be easily manipulated if you try, and you have to be careful or else you might end up with a warped end result. Things can change so drastically, so you must know the consequences to your actions. They serve to remind me that sometimes it is best to not try so hard to change a situation that I am uncomfortable with. Sometimes it is best to wait it out. I could learn something from it, and gain a new perspective. However this metaphor also reminds me that I am powerful, and I have the control to change something if I am too uncomfortable with it.
This metaphor does lack chance, however. Things can randomly happen that you are not control over, and that can put a little too much cream in your coffee, or even a little salt that you did not want. Even then however, if you relate back to the metaphor it reminds you to work with the situation you have.
Another metaphor I like isn’t exactly a spoken metaphor, but rather an action taken by one of my favorite book characters, written by one of my favorite authors. John Green created the character Augustus waters, a cancer patient. Augustus always carries around a pack of cigarettes, and puts them in his mouth, however he never lights them. He says ““It's a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing.” Again, this metaphor relates back to control. It serves to remind that life is full of consequences and chances, but that sometimes you have a little bit of control. There will always be one thing that you have control over, even if it seems small.
I know both these metaphors are quite similar, but I find the concept of control quite fascinating. Therefor both these metaphors don’t deal with much else other than control. It’s a comforting thought to know that you can have control over something, even if you are jut a tiny speck in a tiny universe.