Blue Like Jazz

In this last section of Donald Miller's book, he talks about an experience he had while listening to a speaker. The man, Greg Spencer, told about the metaphors we have in society, like associating cancer with battles and love with economics. Often when someone gets cancer, we use words like battle and fight. In reality though, having cancer isn't any worse than some other disease. "Because of the war metaphor, the professor said, we are more likely to fear cancer when, actually, most people survive the disease." After reading this section, it seems that having cancer is more of a mental battle (for lack of a better word) than a physical battle. This made me think of Lance Armstrong. He is an extremely successful bike rider who had cancer. I remember hearing that he conitually had the mindset that he would not let cancer defeat him (once again another battle metaphor). I just thought this was interesting because I think we take for granted the power of our minds and the difference positive attitudes can make.
The other metaphor Spencer described during is speech was the metaphor of economic terms used for love. We often use wods like investment, value, and gain and loss. This is extremely intersting, as Donald Miller points out, because "If somebody is doing something for us, offering us something, be it gifts, time, popularity, or what have you, we feel they have value, we feel they are worth something to us, and perhaps, we feel they are priceless." Most people feel that in order to be loved or give love, they have to have something in return. We should be loving unconditionally though. People should not have to prove themselves in order to be loved.
After reading this little section, it made me think of what other terms and metaphors we apply to words that distort them. If we eliminate all the silly word metaphors and word associations we use, think of the power we would hold to really make a difference in our health and relationships!