Transformation: From Metaphor to Meaning

Whenever Don or Lori Chaffer come out with a new album I am sure to get a copy, even if I have to wait a while to get it. And then I have to wait a while to GET IT, in the sense of figuring out what the album is about. I listen to it over and over and then one day, all of a sudden, something clicks into place and I realize what some phrase that has troubled me is communicating. Sometimes this can be a very literal process. Consider these lyrics from Far Off Shapes recorded on An Unfinished Tale, Volume 1: Beauty and written down from memory:

Frank the bear was a prominent citizen
in my home town,
but no one really liked having him around.
It's not that Frank wasn't friendly
or a patron of the arts,
or that Frank wasn't kind when he went to the auto parts store
to buy some parts.
But Frank would eat someone every once in a while
and no one could forgive his bloody smile...

I got the CD either for Christmas or my birthday, so I've had it at least four months if not more. For the longest time I have puzzled over why a bear lives in his home town. This is probably influenced by the fact that a line later in the song (is it a bridge?) says "One thing follows another. That's what mother said. If snake kills mongoose's brother, snake will turn up dead." Oh how I wish I could find a clip so I could play it for you. Songs should be heard or sung, not read. But it would have to be a legal copy and I haven't figured out how to do that.

Anyway, I'm listening to the CD one day while cleaning up the kitchen, and I suddenly realize that "the bear" is Frank's nickname, and the reason people don't like him is because he has these occasional and highly destructive bursts of temper. He's a nice enough guy generally speaking, but when he blows up, he blows up big time. Look, I'm familiar with metaphor. I see and use it all the time, but for some reason my very literal mind couldn't see beyond the words to what was actually there."Bloody smile" called up a particular image that I couldn't see around, and I find this fascinating. It's amazing and humbling each time I observe something about how the mind works. And meaning? The ideas about how meaning is created and transmitted are too huge and complex for me to even contemplate most days. It's one of those things that I am interested in learning more about.