A Spanish-English Dictionary

The other day in my creative writing course I was studying similes and metaphors. Oh, what fun to be able to come up with one's own similes and metaphors! It's like discovering a new kind of flower. It is digging a well that turns out to be a fountain.

 

In the process of this noble study (don't worry, I have studied similes and metaphors before:) "we" were given the simple task of taking a few common objects from around the room and coming up with a simile for each one; then we had to explain it.

 

For instance: (and pardon me if this isn't perfect)

 

A camera is like a lightning bolt--it reveals moments of the past the same way a flash of lightning reveals figures in the darkness.

 

However, my favorite one is this:

 

A Spanish-English dictionary is like Craig--look him up and he'll tell you how everything I say translates into Clyde's English.

 

This simile may seem odd, but I think it's strangely true, at least at times. As much as I love my dear brother Clyde practically to death, there are times when our brains simply do not operate on the same wavelength. Our personalities have never been alike, and although we appreciate eachother a lot more than we did many years ago, there are still times when what I'm saying makes no sense at all to my brother. I may be laying out an argument for a situation, and that argument may seem perfectly logical to me, but Clyde may just stare at me as if I'm looney. This is where Craig comes in. Always the Mercy and mediator, he understands each of us almost as well as we do ourselves. I don't know exactly why; maybe he understands Clyde because they're both guys and they're closer in age. Maybe he understands me because we're fairly alike in personality. Anyway, however he does it, he manages to tell Clyde what it is that I'm trying to say, revealing to Clyde that I am more than just an inarticulate female animal. Not there aren't times when I'm not articulate or when I might not make any sense, but these times are much more infrequent than Clyde might suppose. Light dawns in my dear brother's eyes, and now we understand eachother.

 

What would we do without Craig? But at the same time, what would I do without Clyde? And while I'm in this philosophical questioning mode, what would I do without Chad, Kendra, Dad, and Mom?

 

Let's not go there.