The Metaphor on the Beach

Photo Stuart Walker

A metaphor appeared in our town and everyone wanted to talk about it. People are more comfortable talking about signs, symbols and metaphors than they are about real things, so it turned out that the metaphor appearing in our town was a very good thing for our mental health. 

It opened people up to talk about the real things they were worried about and also it encouraged everyone to communicate with each other for the first time in years, especially since the pandemic. Eye contact became more frequent,  as did touching, speaking, singing, crying, laughing and, one evening even dancing. People now had something to talk about that wasn’t themselves and wasn’t the town. 

It was the whale, everyone could talk about the whale and what it meant to them. The whale on the beach could be your problem or your saving grace. 

It could be the physical manifestation of your love for someone, it could be the anger boiling up inside, or the sadness and regret you’ve buried for years. It could be your loneliness - enormous and solid and unignorable - lying there massive on the beach for everyone to see.

I watched them all, everyone in the town, as they used this giant metaphor as a key to unlock their feelings –but I didn't know how to  join in and use it myself. I never really learned how to understand metaphors. I once went to Brook's music shop and tried to buy a guitar that was heartsick, frayed and desperate. But they only had normal guitars. The man in the shop said that the emotions I described would have to come from me, not the guitar. So it was back to the drawing board.

Later, when I went down to the beach again, the whale was still there, but everyone else had gone. Maybe that meant something. But I didn't know what.