Metaphors are the Sex of Reading

And You Don’t Have to Buy the Writer Dinner

Metaphors bring together two unlike things, like a man and a woman.

She stared him down like a panther ready to pounce, teeth like razors behind cherry-red lips… Her sparkling eyes: the gateway to his demise.

“Dying is a wild night and a new road.” — Emily Dickinson

Metaphors are words on crack. They can be thrilling, transforming and make other people’s arguments collapse like strawmen.

They turn people on, too.

A scientific study found women prefer guys who use metaphors to compliment them.

But we don’t need a study, right?

“Love set you going like a fat gold watch” — Sylvia Plath

Without metaphors, writing can get too dry, literal. A good journalist adds juice to the news with metaphors, making the mundane more magical.

Maybe a reporter is stuck at a ribbon cutting ceremony. People are clapping. It starts snowing. Whoopee. But in the article, you can be like, “As applause broke out, snow drifted down like confetti.”

Metaphors can enlighten too:

“Conscience is a man’s compass.” — Vincent van Gogh

“Time is the moving image of eternity.” — Plato

“But now, O Lord, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.” — Isaiah 64:8

“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.” — Albert Einstein

Now, back to our opening: the woman is ready to pounce…

Her fierceness only made him want her more… What’s a long, trivial life compared to a moment with her?

But he wanted the best of both worlds: Her, and Life.

Softly, he spoke, his words cooling like water over a burn. She relaxed her stance. Shall he live after all?

For a moment, she seemed vulnerable. He went in for the kiss, the kill. But as he leaned in, her teeth flashed and he breathed his last.

https://medium.com/soul-mission/attracting-your-soul-mate-part-ii-45750dc69072

https://medium.com/soul-mission/attracting-your-soul-mate-part-ii-45750dc69072