free metaphors

The other day as I walked through campus I noticed a small sign reading, "free metaphor." "Metaphor" is the name of the campus literary journal that comes out annually, and there was a stack of the small volumes, offering themselves up for public consumption.

For me, I liked the sign even better than what it was advertising. What a great service, offering up "free metaphors" to be used as you see fit. I tried to think of what the image of "free metaphor" itself would be a metaphor of. Stuck, I realized that it was not a metaphor at all, but instead the real possibility of a place where one could retrieve metaphors for use. In my classes, I'm often molding metaphors out of the ether, matching up some common but non-physical situation to create an image of the real physical reality I have to teach in class. It seems backwards: Instead of using the image of a pendulum to describe political swings, I might be found telling the story of financial investments and debts to explain how the pendulum goes to and fro. It's funny and fun to play with. I also really appreciate a good metaphor that maps the physical environment to a social phenomenon. Recently the comparison of yards and lawns has helped my perspective. In any case, a good metaphor is a useful tool for understanding something in a new way, a hammer that drives a nail home.

One thing that I don't think too much about is where a next metaphor, analogy, or other image will come from. The "free metaphor" possibility reminds me that there isn't a stack of these images somewhere that I can page through. So, wouldn't it be great to have a pile of these somewhere -- all brand new, never driven before, or at least not pre-owned at actually put to use to complete the other side of the metaphor. For example, I've been working on a passage for the book that likens a group of scholars at an academic conference to a group of hunting and gathering nomads. (Feel free to insert your favorite academic into a loincloth and march them across the savanna.) But now the metaphor is already used once I revealed the other side of the coin, the reality to which the image maps. Similarly, if I refer to "a broken record," you already know what I'm talking about even without a record player. That metaphor is well worn and understood.

I'd like to have a service where brand new, yet-to-be connected metaphoric images are stacked in front of me, or on a shelf, ready when needed. So lately I've been paying attention to some that might be useful to someone, even though I haven't taken them out for a test drive. That is, I haven't completed any analogy or simile. For example, here's one pile of free metaphors. All free and without restriction for future use:

• a bacon wrapped scallop
• a ball of yarn
• a tangle of yarn
• an out of tune piano
• a violin bow without rosin
• a fan spinning backwards
• a cat licking its own butt
• a newly planted tree
• a worn penny
• the first tulip of spring, before it's opened
• freckles
• a flag pole sans flag

Unlike all the world's pendulums swinging, hammers nailing, and suns setting, these images (and so many others!) are looking for a second job and renewed meanings. Personally, I'm going to try to put that bacon wrapped scallop to use as soon as possible. As soon as I know what for.