Sustainicity: a working definition

Something has happened to the perfectly good word "sustainability" lately.   It seems to still mean "property of being sustainable"  and yet it is being applied across so many areas that I feel a groan rising up each time I see this perfectly serviceable word used in increasingly meaningless ways.  I thought a new word might be needed.  A new word that would apply whenever someone recognized the that financial sustainability and social sustainability were interdependent and interlinked.  What does it mean to build financial capital, without building social capital? Sustainicity is a word that doesn't exist yet.  It's not in Wikipedia. Yet.  It's not in the dictionary. Yet.

So I claimed it.

As the 2012 election season heats up here in the United States, I am eager to see how the candidates include my notion of "sustainicity" in their campaign rhetoric and platforms.  I am especially gladdened when I read something that truly surprises me.  David Brooks' reflection on Rick Santorum's performance in the Iowa caucuses delighted me by challenging me to consider this candidate from a different perspective.  Brooks piece is here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/opinion/brooks-a-new-social-agenda.html

And just yesterday, Gail Collins counterpoint as she reviews Santorum's 2005 book:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/opinion/collins-it-takes-a-santorum.html

I hope to reflect on this challenging tension between economic and societal health from the perspective of an individual who has worked at the juncture of those two poles for years.  By challenging my own thinking as a person of deep faith in both God and rational thought, I hope to define a sustainicity movement...perhaps a movement of one, or one plus my Facebook and Google+ pals.  Or just my family as they monitor my posts for signs of decrepitude.

Sustainicity. It starts here.