This Writer is Called Jess

I'm a big fan of the metaphor. It's a way of being in constant control of your own autobiographical and anecdotal information without actually disclosing any secrets. Secrets may be sacred, but they are by no means unique. Differing degrees of secrecy exist, as well as different categories of truth, but no secret is really without at least a fraternal twin--if not an identical twin--roaming around in this world.

By paradoxical definition, a secret can never be expressed or it loses it's status. Secrets are to be kept until they become retrievable facts. The very thought of secret turning to fact is terrifying! But the stress of keeping a secret is often lethal. To counteract the anxiety, we had to create something sneaky: A linguistic loophole to aide in looking up from the darkness to see if you can find that cosmic twin.

It works like a radio signal in to space: a metaphor is released in to plain air and travels undisturbed through the cosmos until someone picks up the signal and responds. It doesn't always reach extraterrestrial civilization, and it is sometimes translated incorrectly upon arrival; but any reception at all brings both excitement and fear. It is only then--once there is confirmation of a kindred spirit--that the secret can be expressed and dissolved to fact. Because no fact is ever as deadly once it becomes empathised with; and empathy causes those who hold similar secrets to grasp on to your metaphors with heavy hands. They'll hold on to your metaphor tighter than they will to your conversation. Conversation is mass produced, you see; while metaphors are hand made. They mean more.

That's why they're so magnificent, metaphors, because they allow humanity to feel without admitting it. It's a shame that we're socially forced out of honesty--and it's more of a shame that we're forced to feel dirty! But, perhaps that's what propels us forward evolutionarily. Perhaps it is because of the repression of expression that we have furthered technology and intelligence. The metaphor is one of the most intelligent concepts in all of humanity; and what a clever invention it is. It's a way to express some abstract notion that we were never given words for--and to express it with language! Obviously, there is a shame-based reason that we do not have the words to express the things for which we must find metaphors. But we do it anyway and that is the most beautiful thing humanity has. It's the last bit of secrecy we hold. Metaphors keep us sane in the secret underground of expression.

When you think about it, there is nothing more punk rock than a metaphor. They are the the rebels of human construct; the force of furthering intelligence; the altruistic medication of the common man; and the horrifying truth that goes deeper than our interpersonal relationships. They interconnect us all in an unspoken sense of unity because they are one of the few international codes we have--and we crave unity even in chaos.

The metaphor is a metaphor for humanity.