Urban Dictionary

I don't always use questionable sources of information, but when I do, I prefer urbandictionary.com.

For conscience's sake, I need to reveal the source of this blog's title and conception. I am not very witty or original. The way I came upon the idea is this: Being both thorough and random in equal parts, I was doing intense online research on metaphor. I didn't really know what exactly I was hoping to find. That level of uncertainty makes research rather excruciating, but undeniably interesting -- whimsical, I suppose, in a way that offends my left hemisphere and tickles my right. Your response to me might be similarly mixed. Understandable.

I should probably rewind a bit. Why am I writing a blog at all? Because I like to write. But I am not a fan of writing for writing's sake. (Yuck.) Ideally, for me, writing involves a sense of mutual discovery, a respectful and genuine relationship between reader and writer, an invitation to think about and discuss something both ubiquitous and not commonly acknowledged or fully understood -- food, feelings, money, oceans, war, technology, humans. I began asking myself what I am both already well enough versed in to write anything at all about, and interested enough in to continue to write about, potentially FOREVER. Or at least a few years.

Metaphor was the first word to come to mind.

I like poetry; I like life; I like symbols. I often confuse the three. Is that bad, or beneficial? irresponsible, or productive? Sometimes I really don't know. So when I saw the word literaphorically pop up among Google's 25,400,000 other results (found in 0.21 seconds, or about 0.20 seconds too slow for my taste), I was impressed and comforted by the implication that someone somewhere also conflates life and art. For better or for worse.

According to urbandictionary, literaphorically refers to a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is both literal and metaphorical applicable in order to suggest a double meaning about one incident. The neologism reminds of what I love (and sometimes hate) about both literature and life: the mystery of language, the potential for finding mutually edifying (and potentially deceptive) connections among objects and ideas, the way relationships between any person and any other thing is mediated by symbols.

Symbols are everywhere. You can't escape them, particularly if you want to communicate or even think about literally anything. (See what I did there?!) Metaphor is the stuff of thought and language, and thought and language are the stuff of life. It's a concept worth investigating, and incredibly fun to play with. I don't know where this will go, but sometimes spontaneity is key to discovery.

So please, if even half of your brain is interested in learning or arguing with me, read on, comment, discuss. My only request of you, dear reader, is to remember that I'm human, and you're human. By which I mean that if you come at me with the wrath of God (however framed by logic your anger may be), I will probably cry like a little girl, because I am a little girl, and because you are not God. So let's keep it open, let's keep it interesting, and let's keep it respectful.

And let's go.