That’s Not What I Meant

Summary: As I’m writing, I’m sitting at my desk listening to the sound of thunder as it rolls across Indianapolis and I have to giggle as I recall a line from a song going back to 1968. The line, penned by Bobby Russell, written for the late Roger Miller, is, “God didn’t make little green apples, and it don’t rain in Indianapolis in the summertime.” I laugh because Russell couldn’t have been more accurate. Looking back through my Facebook memories, which now serves as a historical repository of things I probably shouldn’t have said publicly, it has rained often on this date, ruining plans for photoshoots as this storm threatens to do the same for one scheduled for today. Hell yes, it rains in Indianapolis in the summertime. When taken in the context of the preceding verse, the line in the song is meant to demonstrate the strength of the love one person has for their partner/spouse/mate. Eliminate the verse, though, the part that talks about stumbling out of bed and feeling the love of the unnamed lover, and the meaning of the chorus flips 180 degrees. “God didn’t make little green apples.” What are you, atheist or just stupid? “It don’t rain in Indianapolis in the summertime.” Everyone in Indianapolis would beg to differ. There are several challenges in play here. One is the inadequacies of the English language where the words we use may have multiple meanings and dozens of inferences. When we read, we have to consider what all those definitions mean and which inferences are influential before we can begin to understand what is being said. Without that context, misunderstanding an email or a social media post is easy. Another issue is differences in culture. Some words and phrases are acceptable and common within specific cultures but used outside those cultures, by people who have no obvious relationship to that culture, the same words and phrases become offensive. This type of error gets people fired from jobs and canceled from society for being culturally insensitive. Then, there’s the matter of what one doesn’t say when an author fails to address what the reader sees as an obvious point and the inferences that omission has. If God does make little green apples, are you saying that he also made some things intentionally sour and capable of making one nauseous? Are you saying love is sour and nauseous? Or is the rain reference a sexual metaphor of some kind? When we begin trying to “read between the lines,” and do so inaccurately, one can easily concoct offenses that are nowhere near what was intended. We also have to consider the question of whether what one says publicly inherently taints what one creates for all time. A serial abuser, unchecked for decades, creates multiple popular and Oscar-winning films. Calling out the abuser and punishing them for their crimes is appropriate, without question. What of the things they created, though? What do we do with them? There’s an additional wrinkle in this facet of the conversation. What if we don’t find out about a person’s flaws until after they’re dead? The antisemitism of Henry Ford and Walt Disney is well-known now, but during their life, that knowledge was limited to insiders who didn’t say anything. Do we stop driving cars made on an assembly line? Do we boycott Disney+? How do we judge people with flawed histories and can we separate them from their work? We have become a society where everyone feels they have the right, even the obligation to judge the words and works of everyone else, especially those in power or with anything approaching an element of fame. Perhaps we would do well to police ourselves and those whose criticisms...

That’s Not What I Meant

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