Maj. Pain uses a number of metaphors in his blog to help the reader understand the point he is trying to get across. The point he is trying to make is that no matter if you mess up, you have to overcome it and continue on with your life, job, or whatever it may be. One such metaphor that he uses is in reference to a football kicker punting the ball into the stands. If you are familiar with football then you would know that this action is generally a real bad display of a kicker's ability and can often times hurt his team.
I believe this metaphor is effective in getting Maj. Pain's point across because it gives a mental picture of an action construed to be very bad. While there will be a few readers who won't have seen a punt into the stands, most people have seen or at least understand the metaphor expressed. The idea that the kicker, after making the bad kick, must continue the game and perform the next kick to his best ability is what Maj. Pain is trying to explain. If the kicker dwells on the bad kick then he may lose focus, and as Maj. Pain says, "they man up to it, take responsibility for it... and soldier on." In all I would say that the metaphor used is indeed very effective because of the visual effect that that metaphor gives to the context.
That's a good analogy. I've never seen that happen, but you're right I can imagine it. And the author is correct that the only way to recover from that is to just man up and keep going.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great metaphor. I know how it is to have mess up in a game and have to man up and do it all over again trying not to dwell on the first attempt. I also agree that most people should understand that punting the football into the stands is not a positive thing.
ReplyDeleteI like the quote you used by Maj. Why do sports people always have the most inspirational things to say?
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