Transforming Thoughts with Creative Metaphors

A brownie is boringly sweet until it becomes rich, like Rockefeller.

My dad always seemed to have metaphors for many situations. He passed away in 2020, and I regret that I didn’t manage to write down more of his clever sayings. I am unsure if he used ones he heard elsewhere, made them up, or possibly both.

One afternoon, he was eating a dark chocolate brownie when he explained, “This brownie is richer than Rockefeller.” I laughed at him, understanding the reference to one of the richest men who lived years ago. 

There was a time when my elderly dad, using a walker due to aching hips, rose from the living room sofa to head to the kitchen. He grabbed his walker and quipped, “Well, I’m off like a herd of turtles.” His use of a metaphor made light of his situation, adding a touch of humor to a difficult time of his life.

One of his favorite sayings when describing confusion was, “If your feet smell and your nose is running, you might be upside down.” Confusion does seem like being upside down.

When I was in my early twenties, I told my dad about a guy I knew who didn’t want his wife-to-be to wear make-up, and my dad said with southern drawl emphasis, “A little paint on the ol’ barn never hurt nothin’.” Because of this symbolic saying, I wear eyeliner and mascara daily, even when I have nowhere to go.

Metaphors enhance writing and conversation, which is why I enjoy authors like Anne Lamott and Elizabeth Gilbert. One of my favorite metaphors in Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir Eat, Pray, Love is when she wants to help a struggling family. She writes, “I wanted to valet park them into a better life.” She could have easily said, “I wanted to help them.” However, creating a metaphor enhanced the message and readers’ understanding of how much she wanted to help.

And Anne Lamott’s books are loaded with metaphors. One I can relate to very well is, “My mind is a neighborhood I try not to go into alone.” Many of us need other people to help us with our mind’s neighborhood, especially when we enter the poverty area of negative thinking.

Things can always be described in a straight line to get to a point, but with a metaphor, your brain detours to a pivot point called “ah ha.” Metaphors make us think about things from a different perspective. Jesus, Buddha, Rumi, and other profound philosophers used them to provide ah-ha thinking and make us sense the message on a level of relevance that short, to-the-point wording doesn’t offer in their black-and-white, no-color perspective. Words that transform into metaphors are like a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly. The enhanced beauty is significant.

Since we have just begun a new year, I am working on my New Year’s resolutions in metaphor style. See if you can determine their one- or two-word description:

Or I could have said:

• Diet
• Exercise
• Write more
• Declutter
• New job
• Travel

Metaphors– they magically stir the message that bakes a word-cake as rich as Rockefeller.

Or I could have said, “Metaphors are cool.”

Sense the difference?

May the new year explode with fireworks of happiness and health.

Or I could say,

Happy New Year.

Carol Injaychock

January 2, 2025