Ethics: November 2023

Written By Paige Redman

When I started thinking about the value of ethics, the first thought in my mind wasn’t the semester-long course I took in college. The first picture in my mind was of a gentle-spirited man with a head of white hair and a matching white mustache. We call him Uncle Clem. He is a stalwart in our canoe paddling club. A soft-spoken Hawaiian man in his seventies, he is always the first person to arrive and the last person to leave. The back of his truck is a lost and found for our community because he picks up everything he finds on the beach, knowing that those things belong to someone. For us, he is a real-life example of ethical living, a person oriented around others' well-being.

In my mind, ethics can be thought of as a code of conduct, a set of guiding principles for how we interact in the community. They are also the ways we behave when no one is looking—like all the times Uncle Clem weeds the lawn, removing all the spiky plants by hand, when no one is on the beach to see him do it. We just show up and enjoy walking around barefoot without getting poked.

When I asked Ryan why Flourish included ethics in its list of values, part of his answer was, “Without ethics, it is impossible to awaken the full potential of the mind, let alone support the ideal conditions for doing so.” I took this to mean you can’t get somewhere without knowing where you want to go. For this reason, taking some time to dig deeper into your own personal code of conduct or ethics or set of values is an exercise well worth doing. And as you invest time in exploring these ideas for yourself, I hope you draw inspiration from a person or persons in your own life. Below are some resources to get you started:
 

Paige Redman https://www.flourishfoundation.org
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Wisdom: December 2023
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Generosity: October 2023