How and Why – the Means and the Meaning
Part 1 – The Man and the Myth
The More Important
In today’s world, science reigns; technology is King. Right?
The infamous quote from the 1950’s television series, Dragnet, features Detective Sergeant Friday asking, “Just the facts, Ma’am.” So, facts are what matters. Right?
Schools teach facts. You pass or fail the tests based on your knowledge of facts. That proves facts are what is important to success in life. Right?
When seeking a job, companies ask for your qualification. That is a fancy word for the facts of your life history. In effect, they are stating that the facts are of supreme importance. That confirms that facts are what is most important in this world. Right?
Isn’t this the case?
No. It is not.
If science were king, if facts were supreme, young children should be asking “How?” They don’t. They ask “Why.” Not just in America or the European countries. All cultures. All languages. All around the world. If facts were what were most important for human life, the children should be asking “How.” But they don’t. They ask “Why.”
The obvious question is. “Since how and why appear to be discordant, what is wrong? What explains this?”
The answer is that small children are asking the right question. “Why” is more important than “how.” The problem in understanding this is that the answer occurs in two-stages. Children are asking for the final answer, but don’t understand that understanding the answer requires a first stage. Children want to get straight to the meaning–the why–without having to go through the means–the how. To simplify the answer, that want to understand the meaning. And, yes, they can intellectually grasp the rudimentary understanding of the meaning. But, in order to fully understand the meaning–the why, you have to learn the means. Only then will it yield its full depth, breadth, and scope of meaning.
An Illustrative Example
To illustrate what is happening, examine the life of John Chapman, who was born on September 26, 1774 in Leominster, Massachusetts, and died on March 18, 1845. He planted apple orchards in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Ontario, Canada. The background was that, at the turn of the 19th century, settlers were moving into the Northwest Territory. Speculators, such as the Ohio Company of Associates, purchased vast swaths of land. In 1792, they offered 100 acres of land to any settler willing to form a permanent homestead. Since an apple tree took roughly ten years to bear fruit, proving their homesteads were permanent required planting 50 apple trees and 20 peach trees in their first three years of homesteading. John Chapman saw a business opportunity. He secured a homestead, did the hard work of planting trees, then sold the land to settlers, and moved further west to start the cycle again.
If the story were to stop at this point, the caricature would be a three-second TV snippet of Laugh-in’s Lily Tomlin sticking her finger on her cheek and chanting “boring.”
This is the basis for the “How.” Now for the transition to the “Why.”
The United States has immortalized John Chapman in print, story and song. He is even the subject of the 1948 Disney feature, Melody Time. He is portrayed as Johnny Appleseed, a barefoot pioneer carrying a sack of apple seeds and selflessly planting them across the west.
However, the real Johnny Appleseed planted neither golden delicious apples for eating, nor Granny Smith’s for pies, but inedible apples for making hard apple cider, an alcoholic drink.
In short, the myth of Johnny Appleseed does have a factual basis, but the myth goes beyond the facts.
The Man versus the Myth
In America, we experienced several waves of migration to “Settle the West.” The first was after the Revolutionary War, the second was after the Civil War. As humans, we choose heroes or heroines who epitomize “Who We Are” or “Who We Want to Be.” It’s human nature. We start our as small children saying, “When I grow up, I want to be a …” As adolescents, we chose specific people as our heroes and heroines and say, “I want to be like them.” As teenagers, we identify specific people we respect and say, “they have these qualities of character that I respect and desire, and I want to emulate them.” As adults, we admire certain people and say, “They epitomize this moral characteristic that I have and I want to become more like them.”
The inevitability is that we have a tendency to emphasize the desirable traits and overlook the less desirable. That’s human nature. It’s who we are.
What were the characteristics we believe in the men and women who settled the west epitomized for us?
- They wanted a better life
- They had courage in the face of the unknown and danger
- They were willing to work hard
- They wouldn’t accept the difficult as an impossible barrier
- They were selfless, willing to help each other so the community could win
Now compare what we know about the man John Chapman and compare it with the myth of Johnnie Appleseed.
| Characteristic | John Chapman | Johnnie Appleseed |
| Wanted a Better Life | Yes | Yes |
| Courage in Face of Unknown & Danger | Yes | Yes |
| Willing to Work Hard | Yes | Yes |
| Wouldn’t Accept Difficult as Barrier | Yes | Yes |
| Selfless, Willing to Help Others | Unknown | Yes |
How does this translate for someone we admire and want to be more like? Close enough.
So, the legend was created and the myth of Johnnie Appleseed was born.