Decades ago, my friend Gary Kemper gave me this bumper sticker. I like it so much I have never put it on a car. Cars come and go, and bumpers even more frequently. I kept it on a bookshelf where I could see it whenever I passed by, even as it has gotten somewhat worse for wear:

Metaphors are an important part of language, a notion that was reinforced when I listened to the latest episode of Slate’s Lexicon Valley podcast. While discussing the language of the “fiscal cliff,” hosts Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo point out that we use metaphors once about every 20 to 25 words. That’s about five or six times per minute.

We’re not talking about literary metaphors (like “the yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window panes”), but rather those we use to foster quick understanding of abstract concepts. Speaking with author James Geary, Vuolo uncovered a few high-level categories of metaphors. When we apply metaphors within these categories, it’s called “scaffolding.” The categories:

• The physical senses to convey understanding: I see what you’re saying, I hear that, and flashes of insight are examples of metaphors in this category. So is the idea of one person being hot while another leaves you cold, or a reaction that’s lukewarm. There’s also your outlook, your point of view, and your perspective.
  
• Time as a finite resource: We don’t have enough time, we invest time, we lose time, we save time. And, of course, time is money.
  
• Time as distance: We look forward, the past is behind us, we can’t see over the horizon, time is passing us by.
  
• Direction as value (i.e., up is good, down is bad): I’m on top of the world, I’m down in the dumps, things are looking up (or down). We’re at the peak of health, we fall off to sleep, we’re high-minded, we take the low road, we raise the bar, and we’re upwardly mobile.

There’s another class of metaphors that are used intentionally; Garfield cites the problem of something “jumping up and biting you in the ass.” What’s interesting about the classes above, though, is that they’re used unintentionally. We don’t think about them when we incorporate them into our speech or our writing.

The discussion led me back to early journalism classes and the notion of how we craft words. In communication and marketing, we know our audience—at least, we do if we’re doing our jobs well—which means we should have a sense of the metaphors that will resonate, even unconsciously, with them. But because we use these metaphors so often as just another natural component of speech, without thought, we tend not to give them the consideration we should. We toss off “We’re ending the year on a high note” without evaluating the metaphorical properties of the sentence.

Metaphors are powerful. I’m redoubling my effort to be conscious of them when I write in order to add power to my words.

Are you already taking that path?