Thalia wore a short skirt and knee-high, white patent leather boots. Twirling a baton and managing hip-high alternate leg kicks, she sang a jingle from the her memory bank… “You’ll get a kick, get a kick, get a kick out of clean!”
“She’s dating us,” said Urania with a grimace. “That’s so old I can’t even find a clip to link.”
“All this excitement because you know who got busy with a bucket and the vacuum yesterday?” asked Calliope.
“Yes! and….,” Thalia was struggling to breathe, kick, and talk at the same time, “all that delicious sleep. Wasn’t it grand?”
“A clean house feels like the first day of spring,” said Urania.
“Can we get back to the question we woke up with?” asked Calliope.
“Ummm…we’ve been up for a while Calliope…what question?” asked Urania.
“Who said we’re losing the art of metaphor…and when I say we…I mean humanity…” Calliope answered.
“I think it might have been Susan or Margaret on last Friday’s call,” Thalia puffed out a sentence. “Can you believe they call their group “Hedgehogs”? After cats the small quilled mammals are the internet’s favorite animal! hahaha!”
“Sit down, would you Tal! This is an important question,” Urania snipped. “Sorry…my tank is low on gas…let me fill my coffee cup.”
“Hedgehogs have poor eyesight and are largely immune to snake venom,” Calliope added.
“Fascinating….,” said Urania. “Can we get back to the idea of metaphors?”
“Sure,” said Calliope and Thalia in unison.
“Jinx!” Calliope called. “You owe me a brownie!”
Urania was feeling prickly as a porcupine and stepped outside for a breath of fresh air.
Metaphors step in where words alone fail us.
They help us to understand how another might feel through a shared common experience.
As my friend Manu recently asked, “If you accidentally chop a finger on your right hand while dicing a pungent onion, does the right hand then retaliate and chop a finger on the left?”
Metaphor turns on a light of connection.
"Thalia wore a short skirt and knee-high, white patent leather boots. " YES!
Wow! Having these three muses, to get the benefit of their “musiness,” must resemble cat juggling at times! At least today...
I searched “metaphor” and found a comparison with “antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy, and simile.”
So the next time you need uninterrupted time for a project, brew a fresh pot of decafe coffee and toss one of the words to the muses as they indulge their caffeine addiction! I believe “metonymy” would stir up a ruckus and the lack of caffeine might result in an “a-musing” outcome.
Like Snow White after a bite of the poison apple... Dwarfs optional.