Troubles are potholes or speed bumps . Mistakes take us off the path or onto dead end streets . Take time . Our primary conceptual metaphor for time is time is money . We save, spend, budget, waste, hoard and invest it.
Conceptual metaphors are equally ubiquitous and unconscious.
They are the aquifers of meaning beneath the grounds of our consciousness. Think about how we turn what we mean into what we say. When we speak, we usually don't know how we will finish the sentences we start, or how we started the sentences we finish. Think about how hard it is to remember exactly what somebody says, yet to know exactly what they mean. Conceptual metaphors are deeply involved in this paradox.