{"id":4130,"date":"2026-01-09T15:19:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T23:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/?p=4130"},"modified":"2026-01-10T04:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T12:36:09","slug":"metaphor-maintenance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/2026\/01\/09\/metaphor-maintenance\/","title":{"rendered":"Metaphor Maintenance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

Metaphor Maintenance<\/strong><\/p>\n

It May Be Time
\nto Tuneup Your
\nMetaphors,<\/p>\n

Or even Toss
\na Few of Them.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s Start with
\nThe Top Shelf,
\nMetaphorically Speaking:<\/p>\n

If You\u2019re a Believer
\nin Such Things,
\nWhat Is
\nThe Kingdom of Heaven
\nLike?<\/p>\n

(It Is Reported that
\nJesus was a Fan of
\nSuch Inquiries.)<\/p>\n

First, Is It Truly
\nLike a Kingdom,
\nwith Royalty and
\nKneeling and Bowing?<\/p>\n

Or Maybe It\u2019s Like
\na Theocracy,
\nwith Laws and Obedience and
\nConsequences for Disobedience.<\/p>\n

Or Like a Religion,
\n(from the Latin, \u201creligare,\u201d
\nmeaning \u201cto bind,\u201d)<\/p>\n

Or an Eternal Hierarchy,
\nwith Ascended Masters.<\/p>\n

But What If …<\/p>\n

That Love Light that Is
\nDiffracted Into a Trillion Fractals,
\na Rainbow of Light Beings,<\/p>\n

Is More Like
\na Family of Footloose Afficiandos
\nof the Affectionate Love Arts,
\nWho Love to Cover Fear
\nwith Murals of Kindness and
\nIts Kinfolk of Joy?<\/p>\n

Goofy Uncles and Antic Aunties,
\nWho Grin and
\nPoke Each Other In the Ribs
\nWhen You Test Fly
\nOne of Your Wild Wonderings,
\nWho Rush to Embrace You
\nWhen You Stage
\nOne of Your Messy Meltdowns.<\/p>\n

What If the Hereafter,
\nWhen It Infiltrates
\nthe Here and Now,
\nIs More Like Your Family
\nOn Its Best Day
\nDream?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Metaphor Maintenance It May Be Time to Tuneup Your Metaphors, Or even Toss a Few of Them. Let\u2019s Start with The Top Shelf, Metaphorically Speaking: If You\u2019re a Believer in Such Things, What Is The Kingdom of Heaven Like? (It Is Reported that Jesus was a Fan of Such Inquiries.) First, Is It Truly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4130"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4135,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4130\/revisions\/4135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}