"Amen"

       A word uttered often during the High Holidays, just completed.  "Amen" is a word that takes one back to an ancient tongue, the language of origin of the Jewish people.

       Tracing a not totally unfamiliar course into the past, the American Heritage Dictionary follows the word from Middle English to Old English to Latin to Greek to Hebrew "amen, certainly, verily."  The OED adds "from base 'mn be firm, be certain."

       But of the different possible translations, including "truly" and "so be it," I think I like best what I remember Rabbi Don Goor once using:  "May it be so."  That has about it for me humility as well as resolve.