What is Thumbs & Thought All About?

Thumbs & Thought is an independent publication launched in February 2024 by Matt Costa (thanks Ghost). It started when the accumulation of concepts and factors associated with contemporary society led to the question, "why?".

I have dealt with typical health challenges, but it really started when I became fed up with low back pain. "I'm not old...I'm not 'unhealthy'; so why am I getting this feedback from my body?!"

Truth be told, my protestations were complete b.s. I didn't know what true health should look and feel like, not really. So after my ego calmed down enough for me to think, I started really thinking.

• Why do I have to sit in a chair?
• Why are shoes the way they are?
• Do I need a bed frame?
• ...

We (humanity) pull these questions into a hypothesis, gather a large enough sample size, and apply our thoughts across the control and variable groups to suss out the parts of the answers to questions like the ones above, and many others.

Generally speaking you will find yourself under the halo of a bell shaped curve; but I was asking these questions from under the shadow of this edifice myself. In our busy lives, we're moving to quickly to question and answer everything, and leave it to the compartmentalization of societal norms to answer many questions.

While walking through my local woods, I made my way downhill via a well worn trail, and had a thought that is summarized by the following:

• This trail is well worn as opposed to others.
• But who started this trail?
  • Was it one person who saw a path of least resistance?
  • Or did they take their time on the way to really see if it is the best path; or was it just carved out via their time's most recent flash flood?

Often humanity is running so fast, headlong into the horizon and adjacent possible, that we won't see the long term ramifications of our choices (paths).

So, questioning a lot of things (not everything), became a constant state of dialogue I was having with myself. As I was having these lines of thought, I realized that recapitulating my experiences and reflections could also ring true for others...so here we are. Much of our experience can be boiled down to standing beneath the same bell, but it doesn't ever seem to be the whole picture; and the norms derived from our observations almost always have consequence, and often contraindication beyond the face of those observations.

The bell curve we could be focusing on, may have sweeping ramifications on other 'bells' (I'm going to use this concept ongoing in other pieces.). When taking these other factors into consideration, we find that we're, not any of us sitting in any given large distribution with vertical pillars which separate from the adjacent possibilities.

Every life is as distinct as the myriad of stars in the sky. We simply find ourselves pulled into various centers of gravity. The arguments for and against societal cohesion aside (a vast subject unto itself, and beyond my line of sight), humanity is at a stage of being where eudaemonia can be distinct. Our nebulous tribal fires will still burn bright, only made brighter after bringing the resource of our own experience to the tribe.

To sum up the why for Thumbs and Thought; sure, there are many like us, and to quote a famous saying from my past, "but this one is mine".