Blog 5

*introductory paragraph*

For as long as I can remember, peppered through the entirety of my life so far; there has been many of situations in which I have learned something. Some instinctual, like walking. And some learned, like playing the guitar or driving a motor vehicle. The very definition of a learned behavior is an act or ability that is developed as the result of experience. Looking back at my childhood, I specifically remember learning how to do quite a few skills. I remember being outside with my father equipped with a helmet and elbow pads as I learned to ride a bike. And I remember sitting in the classroom with my number two pencil, making endless attempts to write my name in cursive. But do you know what I don’t remember learning? And, what i’m sure you don’t remember learning either? How to speak and how to communicate with the people around us. Sure, technically we did technically have to learn how to speak, but we were so young at the time, and the act comes so instinctively now, that it’s hard to imagine a time in which we didn’t know how to speak. The same goes for speaking in metaphors. Generally when everyday folks hear the word ‘metaphor’ you’re brought right back to high school English class where the only understanding of the word, you needed to know was the text book definition in order to pass your vocabulary quiz, but nothing more. But, what many don’t realize is how often we really use metaphors because they are hidden in phrases so simple and so common, that we hardly think twice about what it is we’re really saying. Sentences like “You might want to put on a sweater or you’ll catch a cold ” is in fact, metaphorical. Now, the real question is; What do metaphors mean to us? And since we’re using them so often; Should we be paying closer attention to the words we are really speaking. Are they sending the right message? Should the Father telling his son; “I’ll have your head if you come home a minute past curfew tonight” reconsider if his words are correctly depicting his true intentions of keeping his child safe? Or is his choice of metaphorical terms scrambling and twisting his message in the mind of his son? Should the oncologist telling his patient to “keep fighting” reexamine weather his words encourage his patient to live despite the terminal disease? Or is it planting the idea in his patient’s mind that death from cancer equals weakness and defeat? Can words really be this powerful? Could this ability to speak, that we’ve known all of our lives, be detrimental to our well being? I say, who’s to say they’re not? What proof do we have that all metaphors used in all situations are beneficial? I say, not enough to dismiss the idea that the misuse could be detrimental.