Metaphors Be With You
Musings on Fighting Back Fascism
I just finished reading Eve L. Ewing’s powerful piece for In These Times.
One passage stood out:
“Lest all this ‘dream’ talk sound soft and squishy and immaterial, it’s imperative to understand this nightmarish moment as actually being a reflection of someone else’s dream. Groups like Moms for Liberty and The Heritage Foundation have spent years bringing their most deeply held conjurations across the threshold into reality.”
There it is. Dreaming is dangerous. Einstein’s claim that “imagination is more important than knowledge” rings truer than ever. We’re living in the actualized consequences of our enemies’ imaginations. They made plans, waited, told stories, won minds, and sowed xenophobia, transphobia, and cruelty. So what do we do?
We dream harder and more dangerously, because we cannot afford to lose.
Talk to your neighbors, share stories, make art, and organize.
Something else that I can’t stop thinking about are the personal stories buried deep inside us. Narratives are vital because humans think in story form, not raw data.
Also, poetry and other creative arts connect us on an emotional level, reminding us we are living, feeling beings. We’re interdependent.
Here’s a secret: metaphors are weapons.
As Ewing pointed out about “dangerous dreaming,” we too often overlook imagination’s power and hand it to our enemies. Schools teach creative writing as soft and trivial, yet metaphors—simple comparisons—unlock a Pandora’s box of power.
I challenge you to write some metaphors!
Your Prompt (If You Choose to Accept It)
Metaphors be with you:
Americans collectively owe over $17 trillion in household debt, often due to the high cost of healthcare, housing, and education. With universal public access to these human rights, we’d be better off. Things will likely get worse under Trump’s reign. How can we make comparisons to foster solidarity?
(Use “debt” or substitute your own comparison.)
Start with a simile (a comparison using like or as). Some say a simile is simply a metaphor that reveals itself.
For example:
Debt is like an anchor.
Debt is as heavy as a one-hundred-pound boulder.
Go further:
Debt haunts me. It is the monster under my bed, the demon beneath the floorboards—the secret shame of most Americans.
Now you’ve created a metaphor!