Philosophy

Part 1
Creative Thinking.
Construct as many metaphors as you can about five different things that describe any aspect of your life, such as someone you know, something you do, some place you have been, or anything else. Refer to Activity 7.1, located in Ch. 7 of Thinking, for examples on how to create metaphors.

Example
Event PersonPlace Mother
Metaphor A mountain in the mist Strong and everlasting A blanket of safety and comfort.

An Ex-
A locked treasure box A hemorrhage of reason A moratorium of promises An emotional abscess A finished novel.

Favorite book
A faithful and trusted friend A portal of escape A pillow laced with promises of dreams An old, magical grab-bag A shifting kaleidoscope.

Bedroom
A single-occupancy sanctuary A guarded fortress A years-old garden of creativity A yard sale waiting to happen.

An empty page
A playground for the mind An unplanted seed An overwhelmingly quiet taunt An unexplored universe.

Writing
My happy place A releasing of caged bulls A loud but soothing waterfall A transfer of chaos A melding of dreams with reality Drawing a face one saw in the stars Coloring in a faded sketch.

BoyfriendGirlfriendLove
An incessant smile Lingering traces of a dream Dragonflies dancing in the twilight A tempestuous ocean A memory-laden scent A stalwart boat in the sea of sanity A never-ending story.

Hong Kong
A brighter, inverted night sky A smorgasbord of culture and time Consumerism in a beautiful box A concrete jungle adventure A gigantic little world.

Coffee
The start of every morning An elixir of life The basic substance of creativity A different kind of social lubricant A fuel for the mind.

Part 2
NaturalMental Orders
Organize two sets of information using natural and mental orders. Refer to the NaturalMental Orders section in Ch. 8 of Thinking for additional guidance.

Example
Type of Organization Natural Order Chronological
Example Seeds grow into plants, flower or fruit, produce more seeds, fall to the ground, take root, and produce another plant

Natural Order Chronological
Water on the earth evaporates into water vapor, water vapor condenses into a cloud, and the cloud precipitates rain back to the earth.

Mental Order Causal
People killed cats thinking they were evil and brought curses, people also unknowingly brought rats which carried fleas infected with the Bubonic Plague, without cats the rats multiplied rapidly, the dramatically increasing population of rats found their way to different parts of Europe carrying the plague with them, and over 25 million people died from it.

Mental Order Logical
Special clothes are folded neatly in the closet, newly washed clothes are placed on hangers above the folded clothes, dirty clothes go in the laundry basket, damaged clothes go in a pile beside the sewing machine, and unwanted clothes go in the donation box.