Fascinating article. I always learn so much from your posts, and they often ‘blow my mind.’ Now I need to find a better conceptual metaphor for that! x
Among many other things, you said: "...It’s not that I don’t understand the expression “beating around the bush,” I just don’t understand when people are doing it." That seems to be an intriguing insight, which, the more I try to understand it, the less I do understand it.
Do you think that you are not connecting a situation present to you to that "wrapper," to the interpretation of the unit, "beatingaroundthebush"? Is "beatingaroundthebush" an idiom to you? Are you saying that the situation you might confront doesn't "map" to "beatingaroundthebush"?
Let's say you see a situation unfolding with a speaker who is saying various things in an organized, coherent way. Are you meaning that, as you analyze or experience the events playing out in front of you, that you do not see 'beating around the bush' as applicable? In other words, are you meaning that you don't recognize that the speaker is saying things that are not really the direct point of their utterances, that they're missing the mark in such a way that you know they are, and that they mean something else, and that that technique is called "beating around the bush?"
Are there other expressions about which you'd say you understand the expressions, but not the circumstances where people are doing it? Any of these: looked high and low [for it], a day late and a dollar short,..?
It also makes me think of Ocean Vuong, in an interview (I believe it was On Being) he mentioned how laced our language is with violence and domination, 'I banged her', 'I killed it', 'I took my shot', 'kick it down the road', etc. which I can't help but to spiral out to a larger aspect of English being the dominate language around the world and the one I and most others will start with in most places, and if that language is ripe with violence, what does that say about what is being communicated? About how you show up in a foreign country with your words.
Since learning this, I've been trying to remove any violence-based metaphors from my language and replace them with positive encouragement, which can be incredibly difficult as you write Marta:
'It has certainly been my experience that adopting new metaphors is an ongoing practice, not an endgame, but it is nonetheless a practice that has had the power to reshape the ways I think about myself and my place in the world'
I'm loving to read about the ways this also reflects on the speaking self, I had not considered this as my perspective was more outward-looking, maybe also because I have a hard time understanding what I feel. Is this something that you simply have noticed or do you have any things you do in particulate to examen this change within yourself, any specific exercises or chants?
Marta, this is a brilliant essay. The last paragraphs where you say how discovering new metaphors can be both revelatory and liberating is spot on. That was what your time spiral idea was for me.
The further idea you really us offer here that by unearthing new metaphors(omg, I just did it myself!) we can make worlds possible is not new but the way you have laid it out resonates and infuses me with energy and the creative urge to interrogate certain areas of stuckness in my life through the lens of what metaphor I am implicitly using.
Something else I so appreciate about your thinking and writing is how you expose me to other thinkers I hadn’t heard of. I can’t wait to share the Empire of Botany with my son who is obsessed with moss!
But wait, there’s more. I want you to know that I see from afar the incredible blooming of you since the time I first came in contact with your insta page to the course I took with you to now. I see a continual searching, unfolding and blooming of your truest self that as it is accepted, continues to give gifts to the rest of us with more and more clarity. This gives me real hope for myself who feels very much the jelly mess of caterpillar in the cocoon. I love you Marta. Thank you for sharing your Self with the rest of us.
Fascinating article. I always learn so much from your posts, and they often ‘blow my mind.’ Now I need to find a better conceptual metaphor for that! x
Haha! Once you see it, you can’t unsee it!
I do so love your writing.
You have been one of my biggest and longest supporters and it means the world to me. Sending lots of love. 💕
Among many other things, you said: "...It’s not that I don’t understand the expression “beating around the bush,” I just don’t understand when people are doing it." That seems to be an intriguing insight, which, the more I try to understand it, the less I do understand it.
Do you think that you are not connecting a situation present to you to that "wrapper," to the interpretation of the unit, "beatingaroundthebush"? Is "beatingaroundthebush" an idiom to you? Are you saying that the situation you might confront doesn't "map" to "beatingaroundthebush"?
Let's say you see a situation unfolding with a speaker who is saying various things in an organized, coherent way. Are you meaning that, as you analyze or experience the events playing out in front of you, that you do not see 'beating around the bush' as applicable? In other words, are you meaning that you don't recognize that the speaker is saying things that are not really the direct point of their utterances, that they're missing the mark in such a way that you know they are, and that they mean something else, and that that technique is called "beating around the bush?"
Do you remember 'fall this out the window'? A create use that was.
Are there other expressions about which you'd say you understand the expressions, but not the circumstances where people are doing it? Any of these: looked high and low [for it], a day late and a dollar short,..?
YES!
It also makes me think of Ocean Vuong, in an interview (I believe it was On Being) he mentioned how laced our language is with violence and domination, 'I banged her', 'I killed it', 'I took my shot', 'kick it down the road', etc. which I can't help but to spiral out to a larger aspect of English being the dominate language around the world and the one I and most others will start with in most places, and if that language is ripe with violence, what does that say about what is being communicated? About how you show up in a foreign country with your words.
Since learning this, I've been trying to remove any violence-based metaphors from my language and replace them with positive encouragement, which can be incredibly difficult as you write Marta:
'It has certainly been my experience that adopting new metaphors is an ongoing practice, not an endgame, but it is nonetheless a practice that has had the power to reshape the ways I think about myself and my place in the world'
I'm loving to read about the ways this also reflects on the speaking self, I had not considered this as my perspective was more outward-looking, maybe also because I have a hard time understanding what I feel. Is this something that you simply have noticed or do you have any things you do in particulate to examen this change within yourself, any specific exercises or chants?
Marta, this is a brilliant essay. The last paragraphs where you say how discovering new metaphors can be both revelatory and liberating is spot on. That was what your time spiral idea was for me.
The further idea you really us offer here that by unearthing new metaphors(omg, I just did it myself!) we can make worlds possible is not new but the way you have laid it out resonates and infuses me with energy and the creative urge to interrogate certain areas of stuckness in my life through the lens of what metaphor I am implicitly using.
Something else I so appreciate about your thinking and writing is how you expose me to other thinkers I hadn’t heard of. I can’t wait to share the Empire of Botany with my son who is obsessed with moss!
But wait, there’s more. I want you to know that I see from afar the incredible blooming of you since the time I first came in contact with your insta page to the course I took with you to now. I see a continual searching, unfolding and blooming of your truest self that as it is accepted, continues to give gifts to the rest of us with more and more clarity. This gives me real hope for myself who feels very much the jelly mess of caterpillar in the cocoon. I love you Marta. Thank you for sharing your Self with the rest of us.