[RD] Analogies are as Difficult as Writing a Title for a Blog Post About Analogies

I have come to recognize an analogy as a rhetorical device that can either be very simple or very complex.  In either case, it is fragile.  Tamper with an analogy too much and the initial meaning is lost.  Leave an analogy to completely speak for itself and it will fall flatter than Dolly Parton's wig on a humid day. I think of analogies as slightly drawn-out metaphors or similes. Luckily, I wasn't completely off when it came to my own definition of an analogy; Dictionary.com similarly describes an analogy as: "a comparison between two things, typically on the basis of their structure and for the purpose of explanation or clarification."  If you want to dig down into the roots of analogies, you will discover that the word "analogy" descends from the Greek word "analogos," meaning "proportionate." They are used to explain a concept or situation in a way that has more of a connection to the general understandings of the listeners or readers; using words to create socially equal portions between the speaker and the audience.  

My family and friends occasionally tell me that I am a master of using analogies when I try to explain concepts.  For example, I was discussing with my mother the personality traits that I have inherited from my father versus the personality traits of my mother.  My father and I are very much the type of people to focus on a few things we are passionate about and have a difficult time changing the feelings we have for our select few hobbies.  My mother, on the other hand, prefers to engage in various important parts of her life in a way that makes none of her hobbies in particular massively important to her.  I explain this concept with the following analogy: I am like a parent with two or three children of my own that I love unconditionally and nurture beyond compare.  Each of these children have somehow changed me in a very significant way, and to lose one would be absolutely heartbreaking.  My mother is in a different situation; it is as if she is running a daycare of dozens of other people's children that she nurtures, at times, as if they were her own.  However, she would not necessarily give up her life for one of these children if the circumstances led to such an event.  According to my friends and family, this analogy of my own creation is both accurate and comprehensible.
I couldn't help but use the almighty Google to find some famous analogies.  Rather than famous analogies, I found a collection of funny analogies written by teenagers that definitely deserve awards, in my opinion.  For example, "She grew in him like she was a colony of E.Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef," is an example of a blunt yet creative analogy that almost indefinitely puts a smile on the reader's face.  My favorite of these humorous analogies is as follows: "The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't."  I found this example to be particularly funny because the way you can track the confusion of the reader.  All seems to be solemn and well in the sentence until "bowling ball" is reached.  The humor really hits with one key word: "wouldn't."  The mental image is established, the humor is noted, and the connection between speaker and audience is made.  
While it may be difficult to differentiate between analogies and metaphors or similes, analogies should be recognized as important rhetorical devices.  Without analogies, connections between a speaker with a complex topic/image to explain and an audience with various social perceptions/experiences would be drawn with much more difficulty. 

(25 Funniest Analogies Collected by High School Teachers: http://writingenglish.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/the-25-funniest-analogies-collected-by-high-school-english-teachers/)