"Metaphors We Live By" Part 1

I use to think a metaphor simply referred to the obvious deeper meaning of a word or phrase, such as feeling blue, a rollercoaster of emotions or the stench of failure. These basic phrases are used widely across the English language to help better describe topics that aren’t necessarily logical but do help a speaker illustrate their point more accurately. The book Metaphors We Live By fundamentally shifted my basic understanding of metaphors as George Lakoff and Mark Johnson masterfully demonstrate how nearly every part of our English language revolves around metaphors.

I found this fascinating as I read thorough the first half of this book and thought I knew everything I needed to know to properly use metaphors and the like while writing. I soon found this not true, these two show us that metaphors can actually be seen working and playing out in nearly every corner of the English language. This point is fascinating, because it shows how truly unique our language is, however I would not know if all or any other languages are based in metaphors like the English language?

This would be interesting to further research to see if other languages are rooted in metaphors such as English. In ways one could argue that all human language, as long as it is sight based such as English, would need to have metaphors jam-packed in every corner of the language such as Lakoff and Johnson are suggesting about the English language. If all language could be bound in metaphors than this would be a profound step in creating a “universal” language. In fact, if lines could be drawn between all our own languages than we could be able to find some sort of way to communicate with extraterrestrials if we were able to find them someday in the future. Which really would define a language as “universal” if it covered and was used by multiple planets’ creatures.

Obviously, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson did not mean to have their book Metaphors We Live By used in the same conversation with otherworldly life forces, but if some similarities can be sourced in multiple human languages why could we not source the same information from other “sight-based” languages used by aliens? Lets be honest, most languages on this planet might as well be alien to any one-language user.

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" Part 3

“Who really can face the future? All you can do is project from the past, even when the past shows that such projections are often wrong. And who really can forget the past? What else is there to know?” (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig).

This book was an interesting read. I found some parts more enjoyable than others, some parts not so much. But, this above text reflected what I did enjoy about the piece. I liked how the book discussed things in terms of time and the reflection back on it. Time is such an interesting subject because it is a human construct and perception of something our minds cant truly grasp.

Our leading scientist suggest that time is our minds attempt at normalizing the world around us. Without time we would be unable to properly coordinate our day-to-day lives without any way to logically think about the subject of time. We must base our world in some rhythmic cycle, because everything our reality presents us is based in patterns and rhythms. Such as the turning of the seasons, the rising and setting of the sun, the tides coming and going, the annual monsoons, the transformation of the moons reflected picture, everything in our world is based on cycles. So it makes sense we construct a cycle such as time to help chart our day-to-day recycling lives.

Scientist believe the purest root of “time” is the flash bang the started our universe. What we perceive as “time” is the actual expansion of the universe into possibly emptiness. This is fascinating that the human mind rationalized this irrational experience into a tangible tool. We base our lives off time, without this pattern in our lives nothing but chaos would persist. Time is the fundamental building block in every human’s life, however it’s individual perception of itself is changed over longer durations of time.

In other words, I remember as a child reaching the age of 10 and thinking that that duration was long. However when I reached 20 I felt the duration from 10 to 20 felt shorter than the duration from 0 to 10. Additionally, an individual year between the age of nine and 10 felt much longer than the age between 22 and 23. This is also fascinating, as we, a biotic system adapted well from evolution has created a rationalization that is born into every baby child about this expansion into nothingness.

This book brings up fascinating topics that make me look deeper into thing I generally have taken for granted my entire life. This is what I like about this book. Time is really at the base of everything, this will interesting to keep in mind as I encounter new things in life.