Intentional Fallacy: a “term used in 20th-century literary criticism to describe the problem inherent in trying to judge a work of art by assuming the intent or purpose of the artist who created it.”

I sat on the wrong side of the train - or so I thought.

Normally, I try to avoid the side through which the sun shines because it’s hotter than the shaded side. Normally, I try to predict which side turns out to be the sunny side when I first get on the train so I can avoid it. Normally, my prediction turns out to be wrong.

So the sun blazes down during the hourlong ride, but I keep my eyes on my reading and think that maybe my side will turn into the shaded side. Traveling east to west, one would like to make that assumption, to build up false hopes about relief from the torturous heat on a particularly hot day. Such people should keep those assumptions to themselves or sell them to professional psychologists for analysis.

Then the train plunged underground, and the sunlight disappeared completely. Whether I was right or wrong about my predictions, about what side of the train would be the right side to sit on, didn’t matter now.

The train was moving, though, and it would soon reach its destination. Perhaps the sunlight there wouldn’t be as painful to avoid as it was at that moment. Perhaps I wouldn’t have to choose sides on that end, either.