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Nine Brief Examples of the Power of Metaphor Msgr. Charles Pope • May 19, 2016 • Words, while an important part of our toolset, can also get in the way of reality. But how can we live without them? On some level we must allow a deep level of language to help us in sorting out reality; words are something that help us to form a mental picture. In particular, we sometimes turn to metaphors and extended metaphors (parables, allegories, stories, etc.).A metaphor is a figure of speech in which two different things are equated for rhetorical effect. It...

The history of the Book of Genesis revolves around seven great men; Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. In the measure that the image of Christ was formed in them, to that degree they are typical men. All these were married men. We are not told how three of them got their wives, but this we are told about the other four. Each of these four received his wife through suffering. Adam did not suffer actually, but typically, and he suffered in the capacity of a king. Jacob suffered as a servant, Isaac as the only begotten son...

ABC has word that the deal is still tentative, but here is the outline: Debt ceiling increase of up to $2.8 trillion Spending cuts of roughly $1 trillion Instead of Harry Reid’s bogus war savings, a commission will be appointed to recommend cuts totaling $1.8 trillion, thereby equaling the amount of the debt ceiling increase. That’s certainly an improvement over the Reid plan if the other cuts actually happen. I have my doubts whether the Democrats will follow through or simply use what they’ve already agreed to to demagogue the issue some more. So the bottom line is that both...

After the recent shooting in Tucson, Keith Olbermann laid the blame squarely where it belongs: on metaphors. We must “put the gun metaphors away permanently,” he said. Olbermann calls for vigilance “to eliminate all our own suggestions of violence, however inadvertent.” But eliminating gun metaphors is only a start. Deadly metaphors are everywhere. Recently, the San Jose Mercury News reported on a Vallejo, Calif., arsonist sentenced to 12 years for torching the Vallejo courthouse. The man's accused accomplice was found dead in her jail cell. She'd hung herself. Arson and its aftermath: deadly. We don't know why someone commits arson,...

After the monstrous shooting in Arizona last week, surely we can all agree that we've got to pass Obama's agenda immediately and stop using metaphors. At least I think that's what the mainstream media are trying to tell me. Liberals instantly leapt on the sickening massacre at a Tucson political event over the weekend to accuse tea partiers, Sarah Palin and all conservatives who talk out loud of being complicit in murder by inspiring the shooter, Jared Loughner. Of course, to make their case, they first must demonstrate: (a) Right-wingers have called for violence against anyone, especially conservative, pro-Second Amendment...

In a distant galaxy, a star orbiting a massive central black hole strays too close to the insatiable giant and is torn apart. But before it can be devoured, the star lets out one last scream in a flare of light that slowly echoes across the galaxy. Astronomers on Earth pick up this faint call and use it to map the nucleus of the galaxy from which it emanated. This scenario is no bit of science fiction …quot; a team of astronomers discovered one of these rare and dramatic events while combing through the Sloan Digital Sky Survey last December....

The media loves campaign metaphors. Yesterday, some MSM wag delighted in pointing out that Mike Huckabee's campaign van had twice run out of gas. Today, it was Hillary Clinton's turn. In the wake of her devastating defeats in the Potomac primaries, Good Morning America rolled an extended clip of her struggling up an airplane stairway. Speaking with Diane Sawyer, George Stephanopoulos had just finished opining that if in Texas Obama cuts into Hillary's coalition of women and Hispanics the way he did last night, he will be the nominee. View video.