living ethics?

somewhere in the first layer of reading, the soil, shall we say, of my research was an article entitled "living ethics."  it sounds so 90s, doesn't it?  i imagine a tree with words in lieu of leaves - catch phrases like introspection, and attunement.  (the latter of which i do not know how to spell.  but neither does my spellchecker so we shall suffer together.)

the phrase came out of a paper written by 5 people - a masters student, a phd student, an untenured prof and a tenured one plus the dean of the faculty.  they're a research team researching, well, themselves (long story, not important).  the thing that is both hilarious and awesome about their paper was that they came up with this phrase, this raison d'etre-type slogan... and couldn't decide what it meant.  "hello, philosophy department, how may i direct your call, or not direct it, paradox and whatnot..."

instead of anyone pulling rank or voting on the definition, all 5 definitions were included, and a very rich concept - better for the indecision - emerged.

i'm just not 100% sure what it is.

heh.

living ethics as an organic, alive and changing thing.  

living ethics as a culture, as a way of doing life.  

living ethics as in the collision of theory and action - putting your morality where your mouth is. something you have to tend, nurture, expose to daylight on a regular basis.

one of the 5 theorists didn't have a definition.  she said "they came up with this term during a conference call and i wasn't there.  i'm not sure i get it."  it's actually written there in a peer-reviewed and published scholarly article!  i think i love her.

but i extra love the image within the phrase.  that values - morality - are alive.  earthy and squatting in the underbrush, playing hide and seek with constantly changing circumstances.  pulling pranks on their arch nemesis "economics".  (sometimes ethics and economics play well together...  but they both have to get drunk first.)

living ethics means not just reading about them or thinking about them but dusting off some theory to Act.

we had a conference call on friday - i got to meet the rest of the team, hailing from halifax, ottawa, miami and grenada.  it was unlike any other conf-call i've ever had.  no one interrupted anyone else.  sorry, i didn't say that properly.  ACTUALLY NO ONE HONESTLY INTERRUPTED ANYONE ELSE NOT EVEN ONCE FOR SERIOUS.  that's better.  we were using Skype and one party had to type cuz her mic was down, and so when addressing her directly, the others typed too.  communicating on her terms.  at the office, the prof down the hall spilled soil from one of her plants (it's like a freakin botany dept over here) and asked housekeeping to come vacuum.  she learned the woman's name, talked to her about her day, too, helped clean up together.  everywhere i turn people are, even in these small ways, trying, quite simply, to Do Right by one another.  my prof has spent much of her career working with aboriginal peoples, trying to unearth fairness and equity in the mire of their bad-boyfriend relationship with the state, but she brings the same ethic to emails with me.  it's a little stepfordian, i'm not gonna lie.  but mostly it's amazing.  there is a kind of tranquility that comes out of conversations where no one speaks over anyone else.  people complaaaaaain about politically correct language, but i think there are no finer manners in the world than genuinely taking care with how you say what you say in order to be as welcoming as possible.

i want to grow up to be living ethics.   or at least someone who keeps trying to understand what it might mean, 5 definitions at a time, richer for the indecision.  and i want to learn about this not-talking-over-other-people business.  i feel like a universe of happiness might live inside that habit... if only i could master it.  

hwb.

McGuinn, MK (2005). Living Ethics: A narrative of collaboration and belonging in a research team." Reflective Practice, 6, 551-567