Metamorphosis of Growth (Part 2 of 3)

miracle, metaphor, myth, and magic ~ growth rings 5 – 7

All that gets bigger is not growth.

〰 Inner Wisdom 〰

Artur Luczca on Unsplash

Growth as Metaphor

For some time now, there has been a suspicion

that the word »growth« is actually a kind of covert metaphor.

〰 Felix Heidenreich 〰

The word growth is a bit like the word knot. It can mean so many different things:

1 ∞ Knot as in two ends of a string tied together

2 ∞ Knot as in a cluster of people

3 ∞ Knot as in a hard to solve problem

4 ∞ Knot as an entanglement (mentally or otherwise)

5 ∞ Knot as a swelling in living tissue

6 ∞ Knot as in a reciprocal vow between two people

7 ∞ Knot as a nautical mile

8 ∞ Knot as a nodule in a plank of wood

9 ∞ Knot as a slub in a fibre or textile

10 ∞ Knot as a type of sandpiper

11 ∞ Knot as a constriction in the stomach area…

… not to mention the hundreds of different knots you can tie with a piece of string …

Knot and growth can even be used interchangeably, when referring to a lump in living tissue, aka degenerative growth, neoplasm, or tumour.

For this reason, it makes a huge difference to be clear about what meaning the word growth holds in our mind. You might be surprised about the spectrum of definitions and connotations of a word which sounds so common, familiar, and ordinary.

Merriam Webster’s dictionary lists over 50 synonyms each under the noun growth and the verb to grow. The synonyms are arranged under three different keywords each:

(1) growth as tumour, (2) growth as evolution, and (3) growth as development.

(1) to grow as to cultivate, (2) to grow as to develop, and (3) to grow as to become.

The verb to grow is over 800 years old. It has been used in an intransitive sense (describing the spontaneous process of growing) and in a transitive sense (to cause or promote something to grow) for many centuries. This explains the volume of different words which can stand in for growth / to grow in various contexts affecting our everyday human life.

The big surprise in this broad spectrum of dictionary definitions are not the words included in the lists, but the words omitted from them!

The reason for this puzzle is the fact that to grow /growth no longer have the identity of the Old English grōwan (= to flourish, develop, known since before the 12th century) and grownes (= increase, first recorded in the 16th century) used in medieval England.

Growth ~ originally a word to describe the development of a living organism ~ in its current meaning, conveys much more than a natural alchemical process, and often overshadows the original definitions. Its application has been split into two main branches, one carrying a range of literal meanings, the other sprouting a cluster of figurative connotations.

From biology lessons in school you might remember that ‘growth’ is one of five most essential characteristics of life. This type of natural organic growth is represented by the literal meanings.

In an essay broadcast on German Radio (Deutschlandfunk) in 2014, Deniz Utlu, award winning author and former editor of a German cultural magazine, puzzles over the different and incompatible meanings of the word growth.

“Thinking of growth, I see babies, a blade of grass pushing through the soil… buds breaking open into blossoms…” he says.

How is it possible that the exact same word used for this natural living process can also be applied to describe the increased production of goods and services? Or indeed the maturing of character?

The mystery can be explained by the metaphorical use of the word growth. This type of non-biological ‘growth’ is represented by the figurative connotations.

5th growth ring

The word ‘growth’ used in non-biological contexts is a metaphor.

Greg Rosenke on Unsplash

Growing up in Stages

I spent so much time as a child dreaming of growing up and escaping,

but when I did, I took myself with me.

〰 Jenn Hope 〰

In general we could say that the literal meanings represent the organically grown crop of the word pair growth / to grow and the figurative connotations are produce cultivated with innovative methods invented by humans. The main trouble with using the metaphor is that the ‘manmade methods’ applied in non-biological contexts are not necessarily obvious in everyday use of the words.

In contemporary language, growth / to grow are a natural characteristic of everyday human life ~ not just the biological processes but our social, political, economic, financial, and every other aspect of life as we know it. Consequently these words roll off the contemporary English tongue naturally when talking about ‘growing a business’ or reading the latest bestseller on ‘personal growth’.

While using these words, we fail to recognise that in the fields of cultivating personal success, professional development, spiritual advancement, or making investments to increase our bank balance etc. ‘growth’ is very often not true growth at all. At least not in the original biological sense.

Unless the implied meaning takes the above listed factors into account, the word that spells g-r-o-w-t-h and sounds like | ɡrəʊθ | means something different.

In economic, political, self-improvement, and psycho-marketing jargon, the word growth is used in the sense of increase, improvement, expansion, getting better at beating the competition faster, thriving economically, having professional success, acquiring financial wealth, becoming more skilful at handling any everyday situation, or finding a fast track to spiritual enlightenment.

In none of these situations does the word carry the indigenous organic meaning and power of the word growth.

Why? Because in these contexts growth is used as a metaphor. And metaphors are, in a nutshell, words presenting themselves as something else. In these cases growth is taking on a different identity, which is not exactly verboklepsy (= identity theft of a word), as long as we remember that it’s a metaphor.

Metaphor [from Greek metaphora = transfer] is a figure of speech “by which a characteristic of one object is assigned to another, different but resembling or analogous; comparison by transference of a descriptive word or phrase.”

“When growth is used as a metaphor for increasing the total production of a country, the GNP, it generates a connotation of a fact given by force of nature,” Utlu explains. “This understanding imparts an irrefutable power to ‘growth politics’: Every counterargument appears to be a rebellion against nature herself.”

The trouble with the ‘growth’ metaphor, and the implied associations it carries via the figurative use, is that the transfer of meaning is incomplete. It selectively picks out elements of a word to empower the users and beneficiaries of the metaphor, with disregard of the environment. It gives the impression of referring to a ‘living process’, so we assume it is ‘natural’ and ‘healthy’, while it may be the opposite of either or both.

What if our interpretation of the whole natural phenomenon we call ‘growth’ is false, or at least incomplete?

The German physicist and philosopher Werner Heisenberg has warned that, “What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.”

What if our interpretations of the growth metaphor through the lens of our current methods of questioning produce figurative connotations, which can become detrimental to our health, wellbeing, and survival?

A range of keywords conspicuously absent in the wordlists of Merriam Webster’s synonyms are:

Adolescent [from Latin adolescere = to grow up] a youth, young man or woman, teenager.

Adult [from Latin adultus =grown up, mature, ripe] biologically mature human, legally grownup with associated rights and responsibilities.

Elder [Old English elder = older person, parent; ancestor; chief, prince] ancestor, grandparent, having authority in the community due to association with experience and wisdom.

Old [Old English ald = ancient] grown up, mature, experienced; of ancient origin, antique, primeval.

All four words adolescent, adult, elder, and old can be traced back to the common Latin roots alere = to nourish and alescere = to be nourished; increased, grow up.

Growth / to grow in their literal meanings involves explicitly and implicitly the natural habitat of the growing organism. It is a sustainable process embedded within the ecosystem where the individual organism is at home. In other words, the process of growing cannot happen independently of its habitat or a soil to support it.

Growth / growing in the literal sense include and are involved in the holistic biological organic growing cycle of developmental stages, sustained by their natural environment and replenishing it in return.

Figurative connotations (uses of the words growth / grow in a metaphorical sense) include only selective parts of the natural biological cycle. They don’t contribute to the regeneration of their natural environment or the totality of lifeforms within their ecosystem. Growth / grow in a figurative sense are comparable with parasitic growth, which drives degenerative processes of life.

6th growth ring

Living organisms grow through natural stages

in symbiogenic relationship within their habitat.

Irina Leoni on Unsplash

The Hungry Heart of Growth

Words like ‘growth’ and ‘healing’ must be seeded with new vision

and brought alive again in the fire of direct experience.

〰 Matt Licata 〰

The act of growing and growth processes require nurturing. From the food we eat, the body extracts nutrients and elements to sustain the continuous regeneration of cells and healthy functioning of all organs.

Additionally, physical movement is a kind of nourishment for body and mind. Exercise helps to develop, sustain, and regenerate the structural parts ~ bones, muscles, cartilage, fascia and skin.

In medical language, disturbances in the growth process are called atrophy (= diminishing growth, degeneration of tissue, wasting away due to lack of use or malnutrition), dystrophy (disorder of regeneration, atrophy due to underlying illness causing deterioration), hypertrophy (= increase in growth of an organ or tissue), or hypotrophy (= underdevelopment or decrease of an organ or tissue due to poor health)

All these terms share the word -trophy [from Greek trophē = food, nourishment], irrespective of whether the symptoms are caused by or related to nutritional factors.

This means, in medical terminology, pathological ‘growth’ (or rather overproduction/ underproduction) are literally called ‘no food’ (atrophy), ‘bad food’ (dystrophy), ’too much food’ (hypertrophy), and ‘not enough food’ (hypotrophy).

While growth and nourishment (or feeding) are different processes and functions, the two are intimately connected. Healthy growth requires healthy nutrition, and malnutrition can lead to stunted growth, for example.

Apart from food-intake, human physical growth is stimulated by a specific hormone known as human growth hormone (= HGH). HGH is most active in children and adolescents. This can lead to the erroneous belief that the hormone is no longer needed in adults. That’s not true.

In the adult organism, HGH no longer makes the body grow taller. But it does help to sustain muscle mass, metabolise fat, maintain bone density, and support normal brain and heart function, among other things.

Deficiency in the hormone leads not only to related physical weakness and organ dysfunctions but can also trigger mental ailments including anxiety, depression, and feeling isolated from others, plus general complaints such as decrease in sexual functions, fatigue, a sense of weakness, and greater sensitivity to heat and cold.

This brief snapshot of the broad range of symptoms can give an idea of how far and deep the phenomenon we call ‘growth’ affects every area of life. Viewed under the spotlight from all these angles, growth can no longer be mistaken for a mere quantitative accumulation of anything.

Growing with all its facets is coming alive as a core function of life itself. If I imagine life as an organism, the phenomenon of growth would fulfill the functions of the heart. The cycles of growing would be its heartbeat.

7th growth ring

Growing needs to be nurtured,

healthy nurturing sustains healthy growth,

healthy growth sustains a ‘good life’.

to be continued…