On Metaphors: Simplified Version (or: I'm Too Lazy to Write a Full Essay on Metaphors)

There are three metaphors I disagree with:

1. Night = Evil

Night isn't all that bad, it is a wondrous time and I feel blessed to be able to experience once every day (twice, technically). When night comes, there is no harsh sun beating down on you (I'd venture to guess that nobody has gotten cancer from too much exposure to the moon). It is a temperate part of the day, a time for sitting on the porch sipping water to soft music or pleasant conversation. No flower grows where there is too much light; night is necessary to give the earth a rest from light and heat.
I would even argue that night could be used as a metaphor for revelation and truth. I say this not to contradict the current holder of that metaphorical position: light. Rather, I aim to uphold and expound upon it.
Light, aside from being the only thing we see, comes from everything we see in the sky (stars, galaxies, planets, suprnovas, etc.); when the sun is in view, the stars are not. During that time when the sun is no longer in the sky, so many majestic celestial bodies are visible. When this happens, we realize not only how small we are, but how small the sun is. There are numerous stars and galaxies visible from Earth. If we focus only the sun that shines on us, we miss the big picture. The sun is usually shown as representing truth. During the day, that truth is our only focus. During the night, we see so many stars, some bigger than our own. Instead of just one small celestial body, we see billions. Every single one of those stars is truth. When we focus only on the one in front of us, there is no expansion. I look toward the sun during the day, when it is the most important thing in the sky at the time. When night comes, and the sun is no longer there to occupy the mind, I can see everything else, everything I want to see. If I focus only on the sun, I never see the stars; I never see the truth revealed only by the night.

2. Green = Envy

Green is a beautiful color, the color of nature, the color of money (Except for Euros, Pesos, and every other non-American currency that I know of), and the color of salad. For this, green should represent beauty (which I know it already does), abundance or wealth (which I'm sure it already does), and health (I'm not quite sure this one is in the common vernacular, please correct me if I am wrong).

3.There is a Third, But I Prefer to Leave it Up to You

This isn't a rant; all I am trying to say is that I make my own metaphors. Society usually uses and reuses the same objects to represent the same ideas. It is almost as if there is a set list of ideas that can be portrayed by a certain physical object. I make my own metaphors because it makes things interesting. I use things that I feel best represent what I want to portray.
A metaphor isn't just something English teachers make us use in a essays, but rather something that contains a piece of the author. It is a priceless form of expression, but only when it comes from the heart (which is the third metaphor, ironically).