Cowboy Proverbs #11

#11 UVA UVAM VIDENDO VARIA FIT. The first thing that has come to your mind is why is this cowboy proverb in Latin? This phrase probably wasn't historically used by cowboys, but it has come into the current cowboy nomenclature due to the massively popular book (and mini-series) Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry. Since nearly every real cowhand is familiar with Lonesome Dove, the Latin motto is well remembered, although few cowboys know what it means. If memory serves me, even one of the book's characters, Augustus Macrae, doesn't know what it means, when he glibly states, "It just says itself." There are a couple of schools of thought as to the meaning of the motto: OPINION # 1 "A grape by seeing a grape becomes varied [in color]. The sense is that a grape next to another grape darkens, to the point of spoilage. The old proverb, which is used in the Lonesome Dove, is more or less equivalent to our "one bad apple spoils the bunch." The source is a scholiast's comment on a line from Juvenal's second satire." [From Traditio.com] OPINION #2 "The Latin phrase that appears on the Hat Creek Cattle Company sign in "Lonesome Dove" is a garbled corruption, and there's no direct translation. It derives from the scholia to Juvenal 2.81 which cites the proverb "uva uvam videndo varia fit" This means something like "a grape changes color [i.e., ripens] when it sees [another] grape" Novelist Larry McMurtry probably intentionally misused the Latin, perhaps to make a point about Augustus McCrae's tenuous understanding of the language. From there, any number of interpretations have arisen to explain why McMurtry chose to communicate that particular idea. Probably the soundest theory is that the phrase serves as a metaphor for the group's journey, as many of the story's characters go through a process of personal maturation and development. Much like grapes ripen in the presence of others." [From the Library of Texas State Univ.] If this second opinion is true then a Christian application of it would direct us toward 2 Corinthians 3:18 "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." Or as John Piper is apt to say, "beholding is becoming."