On Metaphor

You know, I've always thought that climbing was a great metaphor for life. But I've recently come to accept that there is an important difference between the two that fuzzies the analogy. That difference (of course) is that climbing is a lot simpler than life. Oh, and it's easier- definately easier. While I may appreciate that the simpler side of climbing makes for easy illustrations that are cut and dry- I still find myself not quite able to make decisions in life as easily as I can in climbing. Do I go on? Do I turn around? Do I wait? These are all questions that make great life metaphors and they are questions I have to ask every time I go into the mountains. The thing is, while it seems easy to say that life is like this or that aspect of climbing- it seems difficult to say that climbing is like this or that aspect of life. Well maybe the thing that makes it an easy metaphor is the thing that bothers me the most. Metaphors are always limited. Life never seems to be.