Dear Reader…
I don’t know you, but I know you are acquainted with grief.
Life is a litany of losses, a string of sorrows, even as it is bursting with beauty and a journey of joy. My book, The Color of Together: Mixed Metaphors of Connectedness, looks at how all of those things tie us to one another.
I learned from author John Berger that the Greek root of the word metaphor means porter, like the person on the train who helps carry your bags so you can get from place to place. When my father died, my grief brought my life to a screeching halt. I didn’t feel like I was going anywhere. I felt lost. I struggled to find words to talk about what was happening to me. Without any meaningful metaphors I couldn’t get moving. At the same time, the new sense of sight my grief had given me—the ability to recognize grief in others—helped me not feel so alone because grief seemed to be everywhere.
I told a friend I had learned that grief was a primary color of life.
Those words were the porters that got me on the train to writing my book. I read about color, learned about the history of pigments and the philosophy of color, trying to expand the metaphor. And I learned that, though it was a good metaphor, I didn’t have enough to write a whole book. So I started looking for other porters, other metaphors.
My varied employment history, as well as my interests, gave me some raw material. I have worked as a minister, a youth pastor, a song writer, a high school English teacher, a chef, a trainer for Apple, and an editor. I love to sing and cook and write. As I began to look for other metaphors of both sorrow and solidarity, my own life began to speak to me. My love for harmonies and my hearing loss put me on a train to learning about improvisational jazz as metaphor. My love for writing and my depression sent me on a journey of punctuation. My love of food and cooking set me thinking about the table as a metaphor of building community. The things that mattered most to me offered new journeys, new understandings, and a chance to connect with others by writing about it.
All of that is to say, I hope it spurs you into naming the metaphors that help you make the journey and remind you of your most essential traveling companions.
Peace,
Milton
About the Author
Milton Brasher-Cunningham was born in Texas, grew up in Africa, and has spent the last thirty years in New England and North Carolina. He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, and has worked as a high school English teacher, a professional chef, a trainer for Apple, and is now an editor. He is the author of three books, Keeping the Feast: Metaphors for the Meal, This Must Be the Place: Reflections on Home, and his latest, The Color of Together.
He loves the Boston Red Sox, his mini schnauzers, handmade music, and feeding people. He lives in Guilford, Connecticut, with Ginger, his wife, and their three Schnauzers. He writes regularly at donteatalone.com.
WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:
Website: https://www.torchflamebooks.com/milton-brasher-cunningham
Blog: www.donteatalone.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/miltybc
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/milton.brashercunningham
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5863259.Milton_Brasher_Cunningham
About the Book
The Color of Together begins with the primary colors of life–grief, grace, and gratitude–and enlarges the palette to talk about the work of art that is our life together in these days. The idea for the book began with understanding that grief is not something we get over or work through, but something we learn to move around in–something that colors our lives. Grace is the other given. Gratitude is the response to both that offers the possibility of both healing and hope.
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