Uncommon Decency

Analysis tells me that the ones with the endurance to stay here on Steemit (I am thinking of @carlgnash, who always respects all and everyone (dead or alive), @onnovocks, @lynds gathered together on the new Hug-A-Rock start-up Weekly Feature) must be the ones most settled in their daily life. Are the rest of you looking for Kingdom Come? And disappointed by the climb and crawl, stones and walls Steemit offers?

Just go on a tour around Lynds’s garden growing food with all her orange oggling black- or brown-eyed Susans and the scintillatingly radiant sunflowers this past summer to know that these are a bunch of real people making concerted efforts to live a decent life. And I wouldn’t scoff at the word “decent” if I were you, either!

Honorable Mentions of the Last Followingers

And talking of garden, wildlife or nature lovers in general, I think, too, of the steady seemingly effortless presence (not to be confused with an effortless life!) of @trucklifefamily and @allyinspirit, or @apnigrich. Or what about about the indiminishable couple @sallybeth23 and her mysterious, but otherwise obviously plagerising astrophysical partner-in-the-no-crime-at-all-of-commenting/resteeming @icedrum? Would love to mention @kimberlylane, and my special friend @sina-adventure too, but some of us may have already found other ships to sail than the nave of this church (their presence is infrequent). Who else wants to join me in the final knees-up of worship, on 31st December when low ratings (views, votes, earnings, interactions) will force me to close the door on Steemit once and for all?

Etymologically speaking

One of the etymological origins for decent is: "proper to one's station or rank" - perhaps for its Latin root “decere”: to be fitting, taken from the Proto-Indo-European “dek” which may refer to that which seems gracious, which would like to have that with the best fit to fit.

In everyday parlance, it connotes tastefulness and modesty and regard for social standards. To be decent is to be “becoming” or “proper”, which in turn for me carries associations of cleanliness (in Flemish) or even for the linguist, a sense of belonging uniquely for the purpose of designation or identification, as in “proper noun”.

The kind and pleasant synonyms for decent are of a later date, meaning to emphasise moderation and respectability, ending up with the prudish note used for “are you dressed?” (albeit, at first, in the fifties, reserved for backstage jargon).

I am not so certain my presence on Steemit has been all that decent. I seldom fit in anywhere, but sit comfortably enough anywhere, watching the world go by. Perhaps, I may revel yet in having had a very indecent time here on Steemit?

Use It or Lose It

Words easily fall into disuse or worse: decadence and meaninglessness once too far removed from their roots. They become like cocky finches or crossbills perched on flimsy branches up tall conifers being rare all to themselves, unshakeably bobbing up and down and unfurling a twittering of exclusivity. Like condign and heterodox, doxology (great tune b.t.w.), or synecdoche, which I always confound with metonymy‡.

On The Wing

Talking about birds, if you aren't already listening to Eric Dolphy, why not?
And the opening and ending of this tune "Never Ending" by Soweto Kinch (Amy Winehouse's favorite Jazz group) reminds me of the great and short-lived Jazz flautist/saxophonist's duets with the birds in his back yard. And no, Dolphy didn't OD like most of his contempories in the business, but was never diagnosed with the diabetes he suffered from and was therfore felled by a hypoglycemic attack which could otherwise simply have been countered by an insulin shot. And so it goes.... watch out that it goes on a little longer for you.

This brings us full-circle: arrive people! Get up from your chair, move to the garden, the (jazz) café, get on your bike, ride to your favorite outtatheway place, the and then when the music stops be ready for one more, one final round up:

the triumphant Socdollager!¶

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Footnote:

‡Meanings of words with “dek” for a PIE root in consequetive order:

• "well-deserved, merited,"
• "not in accordance with established doctrines,"
• "hymn or psalm of praise to God,"
• (literally "a receiving together” );"figure of speech in which a part is taken for the whole or vice versa" (a.k.a. pars pro toto); e.g. all hands (=men) on deck - Compared withMetonymy: (literally "change of name," ); one thing is substituted for that of another; e.g. The White House = the USA government.

¶ Wikipedia: "Socdollager" was the uneducated man's transposition of "doxologer". The term is used for a final sing-a-long, when at the end of an act of worship (mass, say) the whole congregation joins in the singing.

The photos of the finch and the crossbill and the redstart and the flycatcher are somewhere in the public domain also found on Pixabay.