Making Progress

On the front of a cute convertible, a Pontiac G6, parked in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia this Sunday forenoon, I saw a colorful license plate and bent closer to see the details. How nice that it was from the island of St. Maarten, probably a souvenir, with a coat of arms featuring a Latin motto on the ribbon: Semper Pro Grediens. In Latin prose the word would be progrediens meaning "going forth," so the whole motto reads "Always going forward," a great motto for a car license plate. From the Latin verb progredior, progredi, progressus sum, we derive the English words progress, both noun and verb (change the accented syllable), progression, and progressive. I did not have a camera with me, but here is a similar image of the license plate.

In God He Trusts

I've been watching Mystery on PBS television, season two of Endeavour, the series featuring young Constable Endeavour Morse, before he became Inspector Morse. The crimes are horrific, but I heard in a recent episode Morse's family motto in Latin: Deo non armis fido, In God not in arms I trust/have faith. As Morse thinks through clues and discovers the perpetrators of crimes, I am heartened that somewhere in this fictional character's family, someone believed in God.