Today’s entry continues in the tradition of Latinate aphorisms for daily life—e.g., * Soli Deo gloria, Carpe diem or Ubi est mea anaticula cumminosa? These time-honored insights may far outweigh the value of this blog’s new maxim: Perguado religuias! You be the judge….
As the years of my life add up and the tidbits of foods in our refrigerator gather together to form inviting aggregations, I am struck by the wisdom of the Latin phrase, Perguado religuias. Let me speak directly to this matter…
It’s sometimes difficult to prepare meals for just the two of us. As much as we might try, extra food usually remains. So we store it in airtight containers in the fridge for later consumption. The delight emerges the following day(s), when these morsels become additional dinners or lunches. After a short while, food actually gains flavor, adding substantively to its savoriness. Something to look forward to. Something to celebrate. Perguado religuias!
These remnants also remind me that there are millions of people throughout the world who today will not have even these small amounts of nourishment to keep their bodies and souls together. For them, excess food would be a luxury. Perguado religuias!
In the Gospels, scraps of food are central to the stories of the Feeding of the 5000 (Mark 6:30-44) and the Syro-Phoenician Woman and Jesus (Matthew 15:21-28). In both cases, “what’s left over” is key to understanding the stories’ lessons. Perguado religuias!
There’s another metaphor here, too: How any of us might be considered as surplus or extraneous elements in the scope of contemporary society. Not necessarily expendable, but perhaps not as valuable as we once were. We know the truth here, too: Like delicious food in the fridge, we may also get better over time! Perguado religuias!
So today, I revel in the existence of leftovers, especially those that have aged well and those that continue to delight me. Perguado religuias!
* TRANSLATIONS: “To God alone be the glory,” “Seize the day”, “Where is my rubber ducky?” and the freshly minted maxim, “Delight in leftovers!”
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