Pax Et Justitia

“A story without a message, however subliminal, is like a man without a soul,” Lee wrote in a 1970 edition of “Stan’s Soapbox,” the column he awarded himself that ran in every Marvel book.
And in another, from two years prior: “Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today.  But, unlike a team of costumed super-villains, they can’t be halted with a punch in the snoot, or a zap from a ray gun … it’s totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race — to despise an entire nation — to vilify an entire religion.”  Lee usually ended his column with the exhortation “Excelsior!”  (Ever upward!)  This one he signed off with “Pax et Justitia.”  Peace and justice.
—    Adam Rogers
From his article: “Stan Lee Unleashed the Heroic Power of the Outcast“
Appearing in Wired Magazine; dtd: Jan 2019
The article also appears online at:  https://www.wired.com/story/marvel-comics-genius-stan-lee-outcasts-heroes/
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E Pluribus Unum

We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.
―     J.K. Rowling
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Fear No Evil

He said he was not afraid because years before a witch doctor gave him a charm against evil spirits.
“Let me see that charm,” I asked.
“It’s words,” he said.  “It’s a word charm.”
“Can you say them to me?”
“Sure,” he said and he droned, “In nomine Patris et Filli et Spiritus Sancti.”
“What does it mean?”
He raised his shoulder.  “I don’t know,” he said.
“It’s a charm against evil spirits so I am not afraid of them.”
I’ve dredged this conversation out of a strange-sounding Spanish but there is no doubt of his charm, and it worked for him.
―    John Steinbeck
From his book: “Travels with Charley: In Search of America“
[For those of you who are a bit rusty on your Latin: “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit“.    —    KMAB]
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e pluribus unum

Upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.
―  Alexander the Great
[This post’s title is the Latin phrase which is the motto of the United States of America.  For those who need help with their Latin: “Out of Many, One”.  —  kmab]
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On Faith

Credo quia impossibile.
(I believe it because it is impossible.)
—    Tertullian
[Full name: Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus    —    KMAB]
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De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bonum

There is an old story about a gathering for a funeral.  The mourners have come out of a sense of obligation rather than through any fondness for the departed.  The minister sensing a feeling in the air asks, “Would anyone like to say a few words about our brother Fred?”
There is an embarrassed silence as people look at their feet or stare fixedly into the middle distance so as not to catch the minister’s eye.
Feeling awkward about the situation and feeling that someone should say something, the minister asks again, “Would anyone care to say a few words about Fred?”
Again, there is silence, no-one prepared to venture even a word.  As the silence drags out the sense of awkwardness continues, people furtively glancing around to see if anyone will speak.  Eventually, a man, a contemporary of Fred, feels compelled to speak up: “His brother was worse”.
[The Latin phrase translates roughly as: “Say nothing but good of the dead.”   In “normal” usage, this would mean the recently deceased.  I don’t know anyone who has recently passed away.  I stumbled across the Latin phrase and researching it’s origin on the internet turned up several pages with similar stories.  The faith of the “minister” and the name of the deceased varied, but the story was the essentially the same…   In any case, the story made me smile.   —    KMAB]
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Lectio Auget Existentiae Meae

Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.
—    Aldous Huxley
[And for those of you not quite up to speed on Latin: “Reading increases my existence“.   —    KMAB]
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First Steps Along The Path

Omnis cellula e cellula…
Latin for: “Every cell from a cell“
—    Rudolph Virchow
[This was the very first entry in my journal when I was a child.  At the time, I hoped to be a scientist when I grew up and considered myself to be an evolutionist.  This statement was my shout-out to the universe (“I think, therefore I am!“) that I did not believe in religious dogma – a literal interpretation of the Bible as described in the book of Genesis.  Obviously, the irony of the statement versus the actual theory of evolution escaped me at the time.    —    KMAB]
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