Every time a writer sits down to cut down a great idea into workable planks of thoughts and nails them together with sharp words, the world becomes a more habitable place for himself and others. The wilderness of darkness and uncertainty slowly diminishes as he opens up the frontiers of his mind to the light of wisdom. Be it a novel that exposes the crimes of a dictator or a poem that soothes the soul with reflections of heaven in a diminutive flower, the writer's creation speaks of the unwritten volumes of life accessible only to the human spirit. Whether one is a writer or not, such intangible books are free for browsing anytime, anyplace.
Invariably, beginning writers think first of what word to use and when they find it they hammer it down without looking up alternatives. (Synonyms and antonyms are aplenty in any PC nowadays.) Some even skim a dictionary to fish out any word that will suit their fancy and from there build a sentence. Or even an entire poem or song! (I know because I have done this.) A few gems may come out of this lottery game but like any form of gambling, it may become a habit that will stunt one's artistic growth.
The writer's task then involves finding the right metaphor to package a thought. For instance, writing a song that will put flesh to that thought will involve choosing pictures that will make people hear the song as a real person and not as an abstract idea. (The latter would seem like going to a concert with the speakers off.) "I am music and I write the songs. . . .":This popular tribute to music sung by Barry Manilow has brought many souls soaring to ecstatic realization of what the "language of the soul" can do. Of course, the music provides the winged medium; no, the wind by which the fuselage of words elevates the mind to the heights of virtual flight. But even without audible tunes, poets like Shakespeare - armed only with rhyme and meter -- had always been able to pluck the heart's strings to offer the same blissful result that pure music brings.
In the general scheme of things, what we put down on paper are not the words of a particular language but the metaphors that form those words. For each word came into being by one human mind picturing a part of nature and of life and capturing that image into a useful symbol, a tool that will help any mind after that to recapture the same mental image. The lowly "kurukutok" bird got its name exactly by the way it chirps. It was as if the bird itself said, "My name is Kurukutok!" Considering the exact pitch and the timbre of its tweet, this bird could never be mistaken for an owl or a crow, birds which likewise derived their names by their unique calls. Thus, what was once nature's voice has become a metaphor, a spoken word, a part of human language.
In like manner, music takes the deeper ideas and emotions of humans and transforms them into musical metaphors - simple or complex ones - to convey those same original human conceptions to as many receptive hearts as possible. What was one person's experience in life becomes a metaphor which will hopefully ignite the same mood in another person's life. Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" echoes a universal gift of worship to our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ. What may seem like a melody made up of a driving succession of equally timed beats actually contains triads or three-note groups expressing a dance-like trance close to an experience of infinity or eternity. It then breaks into a restful bridge of equally spaced chordal harmonies that evokes peace and perfection, before flowing back into the literally breathtaking theme. Only a master of metaphors could create such a beautiful classic work of art.
And so it is with visual arts, performing arts, fashion, architecture, engineering and many creative fields of human activity. Metaphors have come to mean any concept that can be defined by a word, a chair, a poem, a song, a book, a painting, a dress, a dance, a building, a family, a company or a nation.
But just like in any language, "miscommunications" may occur in any of these areas. Uncle Sam is often stereotyped as a flamboyant and arrogant persona but for those who have come to meet lowly and hardworking Americans such an oversimplified image becomes ammunition only for American bashers. What to a patriotic American is a historical icon of unity and strength may be a caricature of first world dominance to others. In such a case, people choose the meaning they want to put into certain metaphors.
In political affairs, unlike in pristine nature and pure emotions, meanings get lost in the complex and confusing volleys of unbridled passions. Art and culture no longer serve as the soother or slayer of inordinate desires. They become instruments of deception and subjugation. Minds and lives are enslaved by concepts to serve the needs and whims of a greedy few. Wealth has become the almighty metaphor worshiped by the elite and the masses. With it, many utilize the power it creates to dehumanize humans and to denaturize nature. With it many more have been deluded to pursue its pleasures and comforts. Wealth divides the globe into the first, the second and the third world. And where you reside determines the way you react to the world at large. Or to yourself. You are a metaphor for what we have made of this world. Or what you make of your own world.
And so the human spirit learns to cope with life by struggling to be free from the burdens and aches of the human body. Literature, music, arts and prayer all feed the soul just as much as adobo, fried chicken, escargot and macaroni feed the body. The reality of the invisible becomes palpable through the undying character of the soul while the unreality of the visible is exhibited in the fleetingness of the body. At a time when a book or a classical music CD can cost as much as a family's weekly grocery, guess which would be at the top of the budget list? And yet many a rich person who splurges on "culture" does not think of how the spirit may be enriched by sharing directly material blessings to those in need. And many a starving person who despairs of life simply has disdain for the wealthy. Why? Because the culture that should ennoble humans does not do so and is not able to do so. Why? Because those who have do not really have and those who do not have still keep on hoping to have that which if they had would not benefit them.
In short, in a world hungry for things and for ideas, those who are not satisfied with the essential will always want to gain more. And those who do not have the essential will keep finding ways to get it. The clash of these two has determined the real condition of life in this world.
How then can we find meaning in life? There is no other metaphor for life other than your life itself. Its meaning is what you have put into your life.
(Photo above: This view inside a spacious mall may seem like looking up or down and not as it should be, looking at eye level. The tilted camera and receding lines provide the confusing perspective.)
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