Category: Metaphors
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The Great Divide
“The owl of Minerva flies at dusk.” As a child, for some obscure reason, I latched on to the idea of the Continental Divide. The mere mention of it has made my heart leap as if spotting an old friend ever since. Once, when we were doing focus groups out in Denver, a couple of…
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Upon Noticing the Oak in the Back Yard on a Rain Day
Tangled gnarled branches withered and wavering against the dismal gusts and hardened autumn gaze of gray impassive sky. Long since the clutching leaves were soft and full and warm, long since the shade and sun embraced and dappled earth o’erspread with romping play. No matter when cold still upright stance gives starker notice in advance…
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Kinds of Outreach
True story: Saturday was Louisville Pride Festival on Bardstown Road. Louisville Gay Men’s Chorus opened the musical side of the festival with the Star Spangled Banner and other opening songs, and VOICES of Kentuckiana sang right afterwards, so I was there in the back row trying to sing newish-to-me music after having been out on…
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Images of Faithfulness
The images we have in our minds when we think about things or answer questions make some difference. Maybe we ask ourselves “What does it mean to be faithful?” or “Am I being faithful here?” And when we answer this question, maybe we think of ourselves as house-sitters (like, for instance, Mark 13:34-37) – so…
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How Low Can God Go?
When my daughter was little, I thought I had hit on a way to explain why we could not see God. Because of course she wanted to see God. She wanted to see everything. “God is too big to see.” The way the air is too big to see. God is everywhere. God is everywhere?…
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Real Life Metaphor
What looked like a bush on the edge of the woods turned out to be a sapling, bent almost to the ground under the weight of a rotting log, reaching out of the woods like a leafy, outstretched arm. How long had that log been there, pressing on its skinny trunk, forcing it out instead…