There is a saying in Latin that reads “Non nova sed novae.” When I came across this saying, I put my three years of high school Latin* to work in an effort to translate it. I came up with “Nothing new but news.” I couldn’t quite capture the essence of it, so I asked a Catholic priest, and he said that it basically means that there is “Nothing new under the sun.” I grumped a bit, because I knew the Latin word for “sun,” but I remembered that Latin-English translations are often pretty loose.

In some ways, I agree with the  concept. I have heard that there are exactly seven story plots in all the world, and every new novel is story is just a spinoff on one of those; I think that might actually be true.

But on the other hand. . .there is always something new. Maybe the paradox can be resolved by noting that the newness often resides within something familiar.

Here’s a case in point: once, when my early-twenties, long-distance-from-Powhatan-to-Anchorage, histrionics were getting too much for even my mother, she wrote me this: “Go find a glacier, and sit down and really look at it. If you can’t get to a glacier, get a glass full of ice cubes and look at those. You will be surprised at what you might see.” Well, for once I took her advice, and did both. Ice is familiar yet not, a mundane miracle, and sitting and looking at it did in fact sooth my runaway brain.

Here’s another: my son Brooks is interested in kelp farming; it sounds vaguely Nemo-esque**. What you do is you get a permit for acres and acres of ocean surface, and you set up an apparatus that allows your kelp to grow just under water, the way it wants to do. See what I mean? The familiar concept of “farmer” goes beyond the dusty red clay I grew up on, and now includes salt water, boats, and the cool green fronds of things that look like plants but aren’t.

Or how about this? We all know about snails. For some reason, I started drawing humanoid snails as a child and I’m still at it. A regular snail is rather amazing, what with carrying its house around with it and never being in much of a hurry. But what about the volcano snail, which I just learned about today? It lives near the business end of an underwater volcano, and has a shell encased in iron and sulfur. Mind blown. Next time I start feeling like I need something new in my life, I will try taking another look at something I already have.

*See my earlier post: I love Latin class! – Right as Rain Online

**If you haven’t read Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, I recommend it.