Nemo omnia scire potest.
(Varro, De Re Rustica, 2.1.2)

Pron = NAY-moh OHM-nee-ah SKEE-ray POH-test)

No one is able to know everything.

Comment: This saying is a helpful reminder of the wonders that we stand before as human beings. Honestly. None of us can know everything, and in this day of information explosion, that becomes more obvious than ever before.

These words also make me aware of a subtle and perhaps surprise inversion of experience.

If I act is if I know it all, doors shut. People shut down.
Communication ceases. And the possibilities for discovery vanish.
Why should anything remain open if I act as if I know everything?

If I acknowledge the limits of my knowledge, immediately, the door opens. Which door? The door to inquiry, discovery, creativity, sharing of information (I may not know a thing, but you might!), and on a spiritual level--the door to trust and communion opens. When I acknowledge my own personal limits, I am inviting others to trust the honesty of my humanity, and to risk the same with their own.

In these dangerous days in our world, I am not sure that there is a spiritual principle more important, than unwrapping our vulnerabilities before each other, and inviting trust.