A Fourth of July meditation Out of Many, One written for inclusion in my upcoming book Tablet to Table. Here is a sneak peak at one of my next books . . . The most famous Latin phrase in US history is one of the least understood phrases in any language. Our national motto that appears on The Great Seal, “E Pluribus Unum,” was chosen by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. It is most often assumed that they picked it from the masthead of the popular London periodical “The Gentleman’s Magazine.” The phrase also appears in Augustine’s Confessions. But Adam Gopnik, staff writer for The New Yorker, has made a compelling case that the real source for this motto was a recipe for an Italian salad, found in a poem attributed to Virgil (70-19 B.C.), called “Moretum” or “The Pesto.” “It manus in gyrum; paullatim singula vires Deperdunt proprias; color est E pluribus unus.” Spins round the stirring hand; lose by degrees Their separate powers the parts, and comes at last From many several colors one that governs. The poem describes a farmer making an early form of pesto, a word which comes from the “pestle” and “mortar” used to make a salad by “pestling” together with a mortar parsley, onions, cheese, garlic, roux, then seasoning the “pesto” with salt and coriander and sprinkling the mixture with oil and vinegar. The secret of “pesto” is that each ingredient is changed in the process of “pestling,” but they still keep their own unique identity while forming a new flavor. Out of many, one—-without losing the many. The symbol of our union, our national talisman of truth, is not that the “Many” lose their character in a blend of “One,” but that something new and unique emerges when the “Many” come together to dance as “One.” Maybe we ought to change the metaphor Will You Marry/Pesto Me from marriage (to marry ingredients is when those ingredients lose their uniqueness) to pestoage (to pesto ingredients is to keep their uniqueness while bringing out of them something new and original).
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 23:20:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015