In this article, a parallel is drawn between Steven Hawking's use of common and novel metaphors in his evolving explanation of the theory of the universe and the similar use of common and novel metaphors by educators in four school contexts attempting to illuminate their experiences of school reform storied and restoried over time. The epistemic role of novel metaphors is unpacked through examining the plotlines of the metaphors, the morals of the metaphors, the freedom of the metaphors and the teacher knowledge implications resident in the live metaphorical utterances. Through the use of self-selected novel metaphors, both Hawking and the educators merged propositional and non-propositional knowledge that was bound up in persons--and communicated across people--in deceptively simple, though infinitely complex, ways. (Contains 9 notes.)