The Birth of John Romano D’Orazio’s Blog

It was not easy to choose a title for the blog, and I don’t know whether I will keep the current one, “Sal et Humus”, but in the meantime I’ll explain its meaning. “Sal” in Latin is salt, that very common element in cooking and in preserving food. Salt gives flavor. Salt makes things interesting. In the right amount, it awakens the pleasure of eating a meal. Hence the analogy with wisdom. Salt “gives flavor”; wisdom is the flavor of life, of science, and of knowledge. It is the fruit of experience and knowledge together. The wise person is one who is skilled, who has experience; the wise person is one who knows, who has knowledge. The wise person is the man who sets out in humble search of the truth, and opens himself to others in order to seek it together.

Man by definition is wise, “homo sapiens sapiens”. And who is man? What is human? What does “humanity” mean? The root of the word is this: “humus”. And here is the other aspect of the title. Humus means soil; it means the place one comes from; it means a place of growth, a fertile place, a “moist” place where life can be born. From “humus” comes not only “humanitas” but also “humilitas”. From humus also comes “humor”. Humanitas, humilitas, humor, humus. It is all connected. Being humble means knowing that one does not know, and as Socrates used to say, the wise man is the man who knows that he does not know. The man who knows that he does not know is the man who seeks to know more. Being human means being magnanimous and compassionate; it means appreciating the culture of man and of human society. It means having an all-round knowledge, a “humanism” that believes in the value of everything that belongs to man, promoting a strong anthropological culture, believing that man is capable of good and is more fully human when he lives according to the natural law inscribed in his soul.