Not everyone knows that the United States has a national motto. It’s a Latin phrase: “e pluribus unum.” It roughly translates as “Out of many, one.” You’ll find it on the back of the $1 bill.

These days, a lot of people are telling you how united we are when the idea serves their immediate purpose. Politicians love to present their partisan ideas with the preface, “The American people want yada yada yada,” as if we’re all in agreement, which they — and we — know is not the case, but at least it makes a good sound bite.

Further, the phrase “We the people” is used frequently in the same way, as if partisan and often divisive ideas can earn greater cultural traction by trotting out the standard 1700s-style cursive look borrowed from the Declaration of Independence for use at the top of a page or on a bumper sticker.

Meanwhile, social scientists and political planners earn a fine living by squeezing the third-of-a-billion of us who make up The People into a near-infinite variety of subgroups. This is how pollsters can tell us the political preferences of white, young, married, college educated, middle-income, church-going north-westerners with 2.5 children.

My point is that while in many ways we are all one, in many ways we are not. Occasionally this is worth remembering.

Recently, I’ve been working for the U.S. Census Bureau. I’m one of the guys knocking on your door to get your census information because you didn’t get it done online when you had the chance. Sometimes I’m in rich neighborhoods and sometimes in poor neighborhoods. As I knock on doors, I’m constantly amazed at how no one fits the stereotype of how you and I might expect them to be.

There’s the woman who had a small but profitable business in a mid-sized city, who walked away from it and is now living in near poverty. The reason? Her father recently died, and her mother really needed the help. She loved her father, and she loves her mother. She said her mother sacrificed so much for her, so she doesn’t mind sacrificing back.

But poverty doesn’t always produce saints. There’s the mobile home I found in poor condition. On the porch was a mid-sized dog stuffed into a crate too small for it. The dog was uncomfortably cramped. There was no water or food nearby. No one was home. The temperature was 104 degrees. I got back in my car and drove directly to the nearest police department. They took it from there.

There was the woman at the end of a long dirt road adjacent to a national forest. She told me she and her husband had lived in the 100-year-old house for 37 years. With the kids grown, it’s been just the two of them for the last 15. Their nearest neighbor is two miles away, the nearest paved road is 10 and the nearest Walmart is 70. She has a garden that would blow you away. Her eyes lit up when she described how happy she is.

There was the obviously high-income couple in their early 50s, who spoke longingly of chucking everything to go out and help other people. They said they were actively looking for a relief agency that resonated with their hearts. I asked the if they’d have enough money saved to live on once they returned. They looked at each other, shrugged, and then looked back at me as if I’d just asked the dumbest question on earth.

Over the last several weeks, I’ve been learning that the political and advertising manipulators are wasting their time trying to merge us into their various armed camps by invoking the “we the people” trope. Each of us is thoroughly unique, and we sell ourselves short when we allow others to herd us and our fellow Americans, like cattle, into their own self-serving groups. So I’m turning the phrase around. E unum pluribus. Out of one comes the always unique many.

And the day someone starts to talk to me as an individual, and not as a predictable and manageable lemming in a predetermined income or political group — that’s the day I’ll start listening to what they have to say.

Chris Huston is an author and award-winning columnist living in southern Idaho. Connect with Chris on both Facebook and Instagram at Chris Huston-Finding My Way and at chrishustonauthor.com.