There is a saying in Latin that reads \u201cNon nova sed novae.\u201d 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 \u201cNothing new but news.\u201d I couldn\u2019t quite capture the essence of it, so I asked a Catholic priest, and he said that it basically means that there is \u201cNothing new under the sun.\u201d I grumped a bit, because I knew the Latin word for \u201csun,\u201d but I remembered that Latin-English translations are often pretty loose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s 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: \u201cGo find a glacier, and sit down and really look at it. If you can\u2019t get to a glacier, get a glass full of ice cubes and look at those. You will be surprised at what you might see.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s 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 \u201cfarmer\u201d 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\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or how about this? We all know about snails. For some reason, I started drawing humanoid snails as a child and I\u2019m 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n