How do YOU KNOW?
How do you know you know what you know?
Have you ever “known” something only to find out you were wrong? Maybe it was a song lyric or an idiom. You were singing it or saying it wrong for years and then you were corrected, quite unexpectedly.
My Dad used to sing silly songs to us kids when we were small. One of my favorites was The Battle of New Orleans by Johnny Horton. I can still hear Dad’s distinct voice singing it and see the glimmer in his eye when my little sister would light up because he did.
In 1814 we took a little trip
Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip’
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
And we caught the bloody British in the town of New OrleansWe fired our guns and the British kept a-comin’
There wasn’t nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin’
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
So, I took to singing it and for years, I sang it like…
We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin’
There wasn’t nigh as many as there was a pot o’ gold
Then, one day, years later, when I was grown and singing the song myself to my own kids, a friend heard me and said, “Wait! ‘A pot o’ gold?’ Where’d that come from?â€
“From the song, stupid,†says I.
Well, of course, I had heard those lyrics all wrong all my life. I could say Dad sang them wrong, but he is not here to confirm or deny.
Who’s the REAL Real McCoy?
During prohibition, there was a “rum-runner” named Bill McCoy. He was the best-known and most highly-regarded bootlegger in the United States. A sea captain, he smuggled spirits from the Bahamas and later from the (then) French-owned Canadian islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. He was known for selling uncut European liquors while so many of his bootlegging competitors sold “the cheap stuff,” liquor that was diluted or altered – sometimes dangerously so – to mitigate costs and increase profits.
People with the means and the connections were fortunate enough to get “The Real McCoy.”
When I first learned this story in my American history studies, I assumed that to be the origin of the term “the real McCoy,” often used to indicate something is the genuine article and top quality. I was proud that I had one more piece of trivial knowledge.
Then, I learned about Elijah McCoy, a Canadian inventor who came up with things like an ironing board and a lawn sprinkler. Others would produce similar items that never worked as well, so customers became adamant about wanting ” the real McCoy” and not some imitation.
“OK,” I think. “That’s it. I now know the real McCoy of the phrase ‘the real McCoy.'”
Maybe.
There is also the thought that the phrase was adopted in Canada and the US and applied to Elijah and Bill McCoy (no relation) after it had been an advertisement in Great Britain by a whisky distiller, G. Mackay & Co. Over there, it was “The real Mackay.” It only became the real McCoy on this side of the Atlantic after it had been the real Mackay on the other.
I dunno.
What’s your point Gene?
I know. Who cares?
The point is this: be sure you know what you know and be willing to look at the things you know with an open mind and a teachable spirit. You might learn something new about something you already thought you knew.
The Apostle Paul says to his young protege, Timmy (Timothy to the rest of you), “Look, Timmy, I don’t know everything,†(I am ad-libbing there), “BUT…I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that Day (direct quote there).†(2 Timothy 1:12, The Holy Bible).
Paul said, “I KNOW Him, personally. I am persuaded…â€
You know…get the big things right. Examine and be sure.
Next week… “What do you know good?â€
Until then, I am yours, truly.
Gene
“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”