Some words in the English language are contronyms; words that—depending on the context of their use—have opposite meanings. Consider the word “cleave.” It can mean to adhere or to stick to something or someone, and alternatively it can mean to cut, split, or separate something. “Bolt” can mean to secure something to something else or to quickly flee. So too the word “fast” can mean to move quickly or to be stuck to something.
Unbelievable, while not found among suggested contronyms, nevertheless has alternative meanings. It can mean “not believable,” or it can be used as “extraordinary.” If you live long enough, you will see many unbelievable things.
Consider Alex Debow, who as a young man decided to join the Army. He aspired to be a paratrooper. And like many soldiers—including myself—he applied to Airborne school to learn how to jump out of perfectly good airplanes. He, like others, sought to do the hard thing, overcome his fear of heights, and demonstrate that he had the nerve and fortitude to be a paratrooper. While at jump school, he went through a rigorous training that culminated with five airborne jumps into the massive jump zone at Fort Benning, Georgia. On his fifth and final jump as he floated to the ground, he was excited. When he landed, he knew that he would be presented with the jump wings that he would proudly wear on his uniform. But as he descended, another jumper—who had exited the aircraft after him—had a parachute malfunction and was streaming to the ground destined for almost certain death. Debow immediately acted, pulling hard on the risers of his parachute—the lines running from his harness to the open canopy above him—and “slipped” into the path of the falling soldier. Practically colliding with DeBow, the imperiled jumper reached out to Debow who caught him long enough to entangle his deflated canopy. Both landed hard, but safely. For his bravery, Debow also earned the Soldier’s Medal for heroic action. After his Army career, Debow would go on to become an ambulance driver and earn many other accolades for brave actions. An unbelievable story.
And, of course, there is the legacy of Ronny Able. One day while delivering newspapers on his bike in Lawton, Oklahoma, he rounded a familiar corner to discover that one of the houses on the block that he serviced had black smoke billowing from a second-floor window. People were already gathering to witness the calamity when from inside an upstairs room, a dog was barking wildly, clearly trapped in the inferno. While people were clamoring and wondering when the fire department would show up, Ronny dropped his bike and papers and ran headlong toward the house. Along the way he grabbed a garden hose thinking it might help wet his path to the endangered canine. But after he climbed the staircase and reached the top, he realized the hose wasn’t connected and dropped it. When he entered the room where the dog was trapped, there was one open window for escape, but it was a long drop. Quickly he remembered the detached hose. Grabbing it, he fastened it around a bed post, tossed it out the window, and with the dog in his arms, shinnied down to a cheering crowd below. Able received a hero’s tribute from the mayor and went on to be a noted mountain climber who would scale Mt. Everest six times. Another unbelievable story.
Then there’s was the tale of Missy Donovan. While working on her family’s ranch in Montana, she managed to get her WW II-vintage jeep stuck in the mud of a recent storm. She was not deterred as her father had taught her how to extricate herself from such situations using a large rope which she carried in the jeep. Attaching one end to a protruding stump nearby, she fixed the other end to a tire iron threaded through the wheel hub such that when she put the jeep in gear, the rope wound around the spinning tire iron, winching her out of the mud. But in the process, the stump dislodged revealing the largest Tyrannosaurus Rex thigh bone ever found. She would go on to be a noted paleontologist. Just unbelievable.
All these stories are quite unbelievable and for good reason. Alex Debow, Ronnie Able, or Missy Donovan are fictious. I made these whoopers up. Yet they’re like other unbelievable canards. Like the guy who drove an 18-wheel truck when he was young, but didn’t; instructed at a university, but never taught a class; was an all-star baseball player, but wasn’t; and was arrested for protesting racial injustice, but never was. All unbelievable. But what’s more remarkable is the claimant of these whoppers was elected President of the United States. Truly unbelievable.
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