Under the Rose
Jealous of my VP’s extensive vocabulary, a co-worker & I signed up to receive “Word of the Day” emails. One of my words over the weekend was sub rosa which is a new phrase to me, but truly captures my circle of friends. Meaning secretly or privately, sub rosa comes from Latin, literally “under the rose”. From my Word-A-Day, I learned that the rose had a strong association with confidentiality in ancient times. The ceilings of Roman banquet-rooms were decorated with roses to remind guests that what was spoken sub vino (under the influence of wine) was also sub rosa.
Sub vino. Sub rosa. How perfectly that describes the level of trust among my friends. We welcome each other into our homes for sharing of wine and life. We trust each other with all the hopes, dreams, fears, silliness, sadness and happiness that may happen to come out after a couple of glasses of wine. We trust that all of our thoughts and feelings are welcomed, valid and sub rosa.
On another note, I think Sub Rosa sounds like a great name (or at least serve as inspiration) for the girls only book club I mentioned starting 100 years ago…..
I totally just watched the Davinci code last night and everything is all about being under the rose in that book/movie.
I have not read/seen it, but from what I know about it I’m sure that would be a strong theme. I didn’t even think of that when I read this, but now it seems like an obvious fit.