Fact. (noun)

1. a thing that is known or proved to be true.*

Legend (noun)

1. a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated.*

*Definitions from Oxford Languages

The title of this narrative came from the script of the great Western film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, comprised of an All-Star cast including John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Lee Marvin, Vera Miles, Andy Devine, Edmond O’Brien, John Carradine, Lee Van Cleef, Stother Martin, Jeanette Nolan, and Denver Pyle, among other notable actors/actresses of the 60s, 70s, and 80s and even before and after those decades.

The John Ford directed film told the story of a young, new lawyer who was passing through a western territory whose residents were debating the idea of becoming a state, and who were being terrorized by an outlaw and his two cohorts, instilling fear into most of the settlers and inhabitants of that area. The local lawman was a frail and afraid man, and the local newspaper publisher, when he was sober, was the political activist informant to the people of the town in which they lived.

Pretty much the only person willing to stand up to the outlaw was John Wayne’s character, until the young lawyer, played by Stewart, tried but was beaten, and left for dead, by Lee Marvin’s character, Liberty Valance, and Rance, Stewart’s character, planned a way to legally see Valance end up in a jail cell.

Not wanting to be a spoiler, if you haven’t yet seen the film, I will just use the line from the movie, which is the title of this narrative, to illustrate something that I am sure has related, does relate, or will relate to all of us somewhere, sometime in our lives.

Just because the quote uses the word print, this is not meant to be a slam pointed to any form of media, nor is it meant to be a slam toward or against any person, it’s just a caveat saying that sometimes what we may see or hear, may not be the whole story, and nothing but the story.

In many arenas in peoples’ lives, things are said about persons and events involving, people, groups, and/or happenings that maybe only part of the story behind them. That’s not to say people, groups, or occurrences may not be noteworthy, it just may mean that at times the people, groups, or events may be either embellished a lot, or mis-told or mis-reported, possibly distorting the facts or skewing happenings or events, making them somewhat different than what is/was actually fact.

Many have often heard/used the expression “a fish story,” where, as a story is told over and over, “the fish” sometimes grows bigger with each telling, maybe making the situation become more legendary, than completely true. There are times when people closer to a situation, who have been “behind closed doors,” and have seen things up close, and who have heard or seen things in true fact, but have later seen and/or heard the legend being told instead.

Perhaps, some’s belief in the legend may be due to their not being “behind the scenes,” thus creating the legend to be the reality in their minds, and when that legend, which sounds real, is told over and over, many who hear that story, too, become believers in that legend, thus becoming a fact in their minds.

It is understandable to want to believe the legends, as they are often more exciting, and dripping with way more romance than the factual stories, often making heroes of underdogs. Many people love pulling for the underdogs, hoping they will get their fifteen minutes of fame, but in most cases where, when the facts become the legend, and are reported as facts, there is most always going to be someone who will know what Paul Harvey commented on late in his career as, “The Rest of the Story.” There will be some who’ve witnessed and truly know what is really fact and not just legend. Maybe that’s a testament to phrases that begin, “Truth be told…”