Throughstone #22: [A/The] Common Sense of Decency

The flipside of humanity's quest for survival is our seemingly universal quest to name the unnameable, to define the undefinable, to portray the unportrayable. Somehow, no matter on what part of the planet or how isolated we find ourselves, our species has shared the sensation of being tethered to some other unseen and untouchable dimension – a separate and presumably higher plane that offers both transcendence beyond basic sustenance, shelter, and safety and the possibility of enlightened understanding. 

When we are at our most contemplative, we seek to express a sense of wonder, feelings of joy, the depths of sadness, the allure of nature, and the mystery of birdsong. 

These efforts almost always fall short – as if by intent to ensure repeated visits to the oasis – but they still somehow provide the foundation of aesthetics, ethics, and spirituality. These quests, sometimes a search for transcendence and other times a plea for connection, undergird our desire to be better than what we are. They are humble, soft-spoken confessions of imperfection. 

We all aren’t mystics, nor should we be. But as a species, we seem beholden to the decoding of the universe to find peace and resolute footing amid the chaos.

Ultimately, the divinations of our ancestors led to doctrines of decency, both religious and political. The common search for a sense of decency seems based on the common sense of decency.  

When we cast decency aside for self-interest and blind ambition, we stray from the wisdom of every historical narrative ever told.

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“Throughstone 250” is a purposefully constrained blog project. As a long-winded Southerner constrained by Vermont’s limited porch season and the Yankee penchant for paragraphs of three words or less, I’ve opted to aim for semi-regular (i.e., consistent in their irregularity) reflections of precisely 250 words for the foreseeable future.

250 means something right now. Maybe more than we anticipated. It’s symbolic but incredibly important…and a 250 word count seems much less constrained than a 5-7-5 syllable count for a haiku. 

Like many others, I’m struggling to make meaning out of these tumultuous days. I’ve always found it useful to try and write my way out of tough spots. Looking for throughstones is just one more effort to try and generate some meaning from the mayhem.
More free-ranging rambles here, if you’re so inclined: https://www.freerangeprof.com/blog