There is a way to see myth in the metaphor we use when we talk to friends and colleagues about the study and practice of law, indeed, whenever we talk about the lives we imagine for ourselves as lawyers. By metaphor, we become Advocate, Counselor, Professional, Associate, Friend, Teacher, Warrior, Guru. Immersed in metaphor, we might attempt to become more conscious of them, those we use and those we abhor, those we adopt consciously and those half-buried in our thinking and consciousness. We need metaphors, and we need to know how to use them and how they use us, how we acquire new metaphors, as we outlive old ones.
Metaphors make a difference.
When our metaphors don't work, we are in trouble. We use metaphor when description, explanation, and theory fall short. A metaphor moves toward meaning by circling around definition, description and explanation. When a direct and accessible route to meaning is blocked we turn to metaphor. With metaphor we confront stale conventions and stunted ways of thinking with imaginative new mental pictures.