Metaphor and storytelling

Following in the footsteps of R Moskowitz, I offer a simple explanation and a general example of metaphor or storytelling as a way of organizing memory to educated action. I do this because the mechanisms of educating the immature nefesh are similar and are much easier to see, even though the message is not necessarily so deep. Yet, in Hallel and elsewhere we see Creation personified in the exact same way as this metaphor. Mountains dancing with joy etc. The basic strategy is to coax the immature nefesh into considering that it has a variety of frameworks in which to interpret an experience, not just the one it is first emotionally attracted to.

Categorization is a basic feature of life

No creature, however primitive, can survive very long unless it can deal with issues such as: 'Is this the kind of situation where I eat this, escape from it, mate with it, look after it, ignore it … ?'.

Since situations don't come with neat labels that say 'Eat me!' or 'Escape from me!', this implies some kind of pattern recognition, and hence some kind of comparison: 'Is this new situation that is emerging just now more like an 'edible' situation, like a 'dangerous' situation …' or whatever.

For simple organisms, this kind of categorization may be little more than the ability to respond to a few chemical or physical triggers, but more complex organisms can make much 'cleverer' categorizations. For instance, the part of a frog's brain that analyses vision is organized in several layers. One responds to fixed patterns of light and shade – e.g. the fixed features of the frog's pond. Another responds to small, fast-moving, patterns of light and shade – e.g. flies that the frog eats. Another responds to large, slow-moving, patterns – e.g. larger animals that eat frogs. So frogs can 'compare' their views of a situation in terms of these three kinds of analysis specially evolved to meet the frog's key needs. As you go up the evolutionary tree, the pattern-handling gets cleverer and cleverer.

Another kind of 'comparison' that begins to appear in more complex animals is mimicry - e.g. young animals learn by mimicking older animals. There is growing evidence of brain mechanisms specifically concerned with 'mirroring' what others are doing (indeed it has been suggested that such mechanisms may be involved in human 'empathy').

These kinds of pre-human pattern recognition, categorization, comparison, mimicry, and such like are not 'metaphor' or 'analogy' in the human sense. In any case, we don't yet understand enough of the brain mechanisms underlying human use of metaphor to make bold statements about 'where metaphor comes from'. But it is a plausible guess to suggest that human use of metaphor and analogy has evolved from pre-human capacities such as these, much transformed by being mediated through language.

The following metaphor reframes "adversity" as being what makes people stronger, that experience teaches and shapes you, and that you can choose to view adversity as a valuable rather that destructive situation . Approach the metaphor as a zoom experience- don't rush to define its message. Use the metaphor to view an adversity in your own life as either as a destructive or beneficial experience. After the experience is accomplished as a visualization, there will be plenty of time to define what we have observed as a separate mental act.

Which framework is the better one to see adversity. The first, angry rock,("Why the rock has to put up with the waves") or the second peaceful rock ("I wonder if that rock enjoys the waves, and celebrates before every storm")? Why? What in the metaphor guides us to the answer?

Constant Rock

I wonder if you have had the experience of going to the seashore and seeing a rock out at sea, and watching the waves crashing against the rock? And you might wonder about the waves. Where they come from and why they appear one after the other .... endlessly. Why does the rock has to put up with the waves?

Waves are the result of storms far out at sea......the storms have disappeared but the waves they caused are still crashing in... long after... and the bigger the storm, the bigger the waves that roll in.

And I remember a particular rock.... it was protecting the shore behind it .... breaking the waves, defending, deflecting, reshaping, reforming... Maybe you recall a similar rock?.....that looked as if it had been there forever .... solid and strong... and every wave that came surged against it .... broke up with a roar and then withdrew eventually...... Some waves were so large they submerged the rock .... other waves were just ripples that splashed and were gone .... again and again the rock met the wave, became one with it, taking on its shape... the wave hugs the rock and the rock moulds to the wave.... until the rock and the wave are one, understand each other, became part of each other... some waves come in with a great roar and a crash with foam flung high... other waves roll gently round the base and drain away with a gentle laughing gurgle.

But every wave ... large or small .... was absorbed and quickly the water ran off .... leaving the rock as it always had been... solid ... strong.... constant.

And many years later I went back to see that rock. The waves had sculpted it... had changed it... its shape better suited its position.... the waves made it better at protecting the coast... but still it was the same rock... in a way that rock had learned from the waves... learning to absorb sometimes and to deflect other times...

And I wonder if that rock enjoys the waves, and celebrates before every storm.... because with the storm comes that sense of mastery based on enduring long exposure.... a deep rooted confidence... that comes from knowing that whatever comes can be dealt with .... knowing it is capable of handling anything.... knowing that each wave makes it stronger... a confidence that needs to be reminded and refreshed....

Because always ... after every wave... the water drains away... and the rock remains .... serene.... unchanged.... learning from wind and water and sun and storm...

And in a way the rock is grateful... after every storm.... the waves wash away a little but deposit some things as well... and with the ebbing of every wave... the rock knows tranquility... and experiences its own strength reaching right down to the foundations. And it's good to know that each wave... no matter how fierce it seems... will retreat ....and leave nothing more than a ripple in the sands of memory...

Steady and constant, strong and sure.... the rock can carry on. Because tomorrow a new day brings warm sunshine and bright sea air... the rock is constantly renewed.... constant in an inconstant sea.