Play Ball! (Literally & Figuratively)
Play Ball! (Literally & Figuratively)
Bad Metaphors Can Obscure Concepts, But Good Ones Help Us Grow
I threw out my TV more than a decade ago, and didn’t sign up for any of the hot, pay-monthly, streaming services.
I’m better for having eliminated the biggest push-media culprits from my daily life. I don’t miss “watching the news” nor “reading the paper” (including the online version of “the paper”).
Alas, as a sports fan and former sports-media professional, I do occasionally yearn for the days of watching sports on TV. I try to catch the rare free-streaming game available online, but the pickings are slim.
To my pleasant surprise, Major League Baseball ran a promotion on its website this past weekend: Nearly all the Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday games could be streamed for free on web and mobile devices.
My computer was busy!
Metaphor or Met-against? (womp womp woooooomp)
My mind was also busy (and not merely from keeping track of all the baseball games I was switching between, heh).
I’ve been pondering the prevalence of well-known metaphors used for exalting groups and extinguishing individuality. You know the standard slogans: “no person is an island” (taken from John Donne’s poem, No Man Is an Island); “we’re all in the same boat”; “links in a chain”; etc.
I contend that those concepts bring more confusion than clarity.
For instance, in Donne’s poem, the all-encompassing landmass is given primacy, with the individual’s identity — a mere “clod” of territory — coming entirely from its place in the whole. The poem’s main point is the impact of loss, but that call to compassion is sullied by its framing.
Similarly, the boat cliche asserts the container as the fundamental principle, with a fatalistic view of the container’s occupants.
And links, made to be practically indistinguishable from each other, get their purpose entirely from the chain.
Anarchists/voluntarists — and Christians, I’d say — should know better than to agree with these visions of humanity.
Yes, we’re social creatures. But each of us owns his/her actions as individuals.
Yes, groups exist. But the group has no character, no capacity, no rights that its members wouldn’t have individually.
These concepts can be difficult enough for some people to understand, without adding the challenge of figurative language. So, should people avoid anything that isn’t strictly literal when discussing important topics?
I say, No!
Figurative language can broaden a person’s perspectives and introduce different ways of grappling with information.
As a Christian, I’m very familiar with helpful figures of speech, because Jesus uses them frequently in His public ministry. Most often referred to as parables, these multi-layered metaphors begin with something the listeners already know, and then draw a connection to something Jesus is trying to teach.
For instance, the kingdom of God (or kingdom of heaven) is described as …
a mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-32; Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18-19)
a great feast (Matthew 22:1-14; Luke 14:15-24)
a generous landowner hiring workers for his vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16)
… and several other examples recorded in the canonical Gospels.
All of these serve the purpose of getting the audience’s attention and then spurring their imaginations. The approach meets people where they are and brings the possibility of mental, emotional and spiritual growth.
The map is not the terrain
But even the best examples of figurative language have their limits.
Much like how the blueprints are not the house, and the sheet music is not the song — so, too, the metaphor is not the real thing.
The map is not the terrain.
The map can, however, guide you along the terrain, provided that:
the map is accurate, despite its constraints;
you know how to read the map and its symbols;
you actually embark on the journey over the terrain (merely consulting the map doesn’t get a person anywhere).
The tropes about islands, boats and chains fail at the very first requirement. A better metaphor for human interaction — one that respects individuality and interconnection — is the aforementioned object of my weekend binge-watching: baseball!
Baseball is a team sport, but the games are a series of events that only individuals can bring to fruition.
A batter must step up to the plate as an individual. As long as he remains in the lineup, no teammate can swing the bat or run the bases for him.
A defensive player to whom a ball is hit must make the play on his own. No teammate can move his glove for him, nor grip and throw the ball for him.
Yes, participants can affect each other’s performances, and events exist within the context of other events (“situational hitting” is considered a high-level skill). More than one teammate can be involved in a particular ball-in-play. But each player must fail or succeed according to his own merits in the moment.
So, pay attention. Put forth the effort.
Own your attitudes and actions.
Develop your individuality. Develop your cognitive empathy.
Be open to new information and new ways of acquiring it.
Set boundaries. Make connections.
Ask for and offer to help.
Dare to step onto the field. Play ball!
I literally want to read your Comments …
… so figuratively holler at me!
Do you have a TV or streaming TV service? Do you watch it more, less, or about the same as you used to?
Do you like literal explanations? Do you like figurative expressions?
Who’s your all-time favorite baseball player? Favorite player who’s still active? Did you ever get to see them in-person?
Anything else you want to mention or ask about?
Share your thoughts below …
Meditation #17 By John Donne From Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624), XVII:
Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Morieris (Now this bell, tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die.)
Perchance, he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that. The church is catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that body which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another. As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness.
There was a contention as far as a suit (in which both piety and dignity, religion and estimation, were mingled), which of the religious orders should ring to prayers first in the morning; and it was determined, that they should ring first that rose earliest. If we understand aright the dignity of this bell that tolls for our evening prayer, we would be glad to make it ours by rising early, in that application, that it might be ours as well as his, whose indeed it is.
The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth; and though it intermit again, yet from that minute that this occasion wrought upon him, he is united to God. Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but who takes off his eye from a comet when that breaks out? Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world?
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Neither can we call this a begging of misery, or a borrowing of misery, as though we were not miserable enough of ourselves, but must fetch in more from the next house, in taking upon us the misery of our neighbours. Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did, for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by it, and made fit for God by that affliction. If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current money, his treasure will not defray him as he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his affliction, digs out and applies that gold to me: if by this consideration of another's danger I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my recourse to my God, who is our only security.
I cut my cable about a decade ago, never had a cell phone. I'm not a huge sports fan although I truly enjoyed playing sports, (baseball, football and track) it's a been a while since I've watched any sports and once the NFL started honoring criminals I cut them out completely. By the way, there are ways to stream just about any sporting event that is bet on, the gambling sites host live mirrors of the events. You need an excellent pop up blocker and virus control. Although and the experience is rather subpar on the whole its is an option I have used when I really wanted to watch college football, which even when I had cable was often not showing the teams I was interested in.
As for metaphors, I don't think they change too many minds, but I'm positive they do help re-enforce beliefs. They are most effectively used with like minded people rather than when trying to convince someone who's not. I can't think of a single metaphor that's ever made me change my mind, but they have re-enforced my own opinions.