A metaphor could save your life

Two people Becky and I have the privilege to count as friends are Martin and Janet Sheen. They have been married for close to thirty years, and one of the things that I respect most about them is their absolute support for each other, for their family, and for anyone in need. As much as the public knows Martin is a committed giver, they have no idea how much he and Janet do together for others on a daily basis. These two people are the epitome of integrity. Their metaphor for humanity is that of " one giant family, " and as a result they feel the deepest caring and compassion even for complete strangers.

I remember when Martin shared with me the moving story of how his life changed years ago while he was making Apocalypse Now. Before that time, he had seen life as something to fear. Now he sees it as an intriguing challenge. Why? His new metaphor is that life is a mystery. He loves the

mystery of being a human being, the wonder and sense of possibility that

unfolds with his experience of each new day.

What changed his metaphor? Intense pain. Apocalypse was shot deep in the jungles of the Philippines. The shooting schedule was normally Monday through Friday, and usually on Friday night, Martin and Janet would make the two-and-a-half-hour drive for a weekend " retreat" in Manila. On one weekend, though, Martin had to stay for an additional Saturday morning shoot. (Janet had already committed to going into town to purchase a glass eye for a crewman who was so poor he was unable to buy his own, so she went ahead.) That night, Martin found himself alone, tossing and turning, perspiring profusely, and beginning to experience intense pain. By morning he began to have a massive heart attack. Portions of his body became numb and paralyzed. He fell to the ground, and through nothing but the sheer power of his will, crawled out the door and yelled for help. Lying there on the ground, he said he actually had the experience of dying. All of a sudden, everything felt calm and smooth. He could see himself moving across the lake and the water in the distance. He thought to himself, " Oh, this is what dying is, " and it was then that he realized that he wasn't afraid of dying, that he had really been afraid of life! In that moment, he realized that life itself was the real challenge. Instantly, he made the decision to live. He mustered every ounce of energy he had left, pushing his arm out to grab some grass.

With total focus, he slowly pulled it up to his nose. He could barely feel a thing. The moment he smelled the grass, the pain came back, and he knew he was alive. He kept fighting.

When the crewmen discovered him, they were sure he would die. Both the looks on their faces and their comments made Martin question his own ability to make it. He began to lose his strength. Realizing there was no time, the top pilot on the Apocalypse crew risked his own life and flew the helicopter sideways through thirty- to forty-knot winds in order to get him to the hospital in town. Upon arriving, he was put on a stretcher and wheeled into the emergency room, where he continued to receive both subliminal and overt messages that he was going to die. He was becoming weaker with each moment. Then Janet came in. All she'd heard was that he'd had a heat stroke, but then the doctors informed her of the graveness of his condition. She refused to accept it—she knew that Martin needed strength; she also knew she had to break his pattern of fear as well as her own. She took immediate action, and accomplished it all with one statement. When he opened his eyes, she smiled brightly and said, " It's just a movie, babe! It's only a movie! " Martin said that in that moment he knew he was going to make it and began to heal. What a great metaphor! Instantly, the problem didn't seem so grave—it was something he could handle. " A movie certainly isn't worth having a heart attack over" was the implied message, but also, subliminally, I believe themetaphor cut even deeper. After all, the pain you're experiencing whenyou make a movie never lasts. It's not real, and at some point the directorwill say " Cut! " Janet's use of this brilliant pattern interrupt, this single metaphor, helped Martin to marshal his resources, and to this day he believes it saved his life.

Metaphors don't just affect us as individuals; they affect our community and our world as well. The metaphors we adopt culturally can shape our perceptions and our actions—or lack of action. In the last few decades, with the advent of moon missions, we began to adopt the metaphor of " Spaceship Earth." While this metaphor sounded great, it didn't always work well for creating an emotional response to dealing with our ecological challenges. Why? It's hard to get emotional about a spaceship; it's disassociated. Contrast that with the feelings created by the metaphor " Mother Earth, " How differently would you feel about protecting your " mother" than you would about keeping a " spaceship" clean? Pilots and sailors often describe their planes or ships as beautiful women. They say, " She's a beauty." Why don't they say, " He's a beauty? " Because they'd probably be a lot rougher with that plane or ship if they thought it was some big, fat guy named Joe rather than some shapely and sleek princess gliding through the shimmering air or sea.

We use metaphors constantly during war. What was the name for the first pan of the operation in the Persian Gulf War? Before war was declared, it was called " Operation Desert Shield." But as soon as the

command to fight was given. Operation Desert Shield became " Desert Storm." Think how that one change of metaphor instantly changed the meaning of the experience for everyone. Instead of shielding the rest of the Arabs from Saddam Hussein, in General Norman Schwarzkopfs words, the troops became " the storm of freedom, " sweeping the occupying Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

" An iron curtain has descended across the Continent."

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Think how radically the face of eastern Europe has changed just in the last couple of years. The " Iron Curtain" was a metaphor that shaped the post-World War II experience for decades, and the Berlin Wall served as a physical symbol for the imposing barrier that divided all of Europe. When the Berlin Wall came down in November 1989, more than just a stone wall was demolished. The destruction of that one symbol instantly provided a new metaphor that changed the beliefs of multitudes of people about what was possible in their lifetimes. Why did people have so much fun digging away at an old, crumbling wall when there were plenty of gates they could go through? It was because knocking down the wall was a universal metaphor for possibility, freedom, and breaking through barriers.