I wonder whether honesty is more active than honestness and that honestness is more of a mind set--or a state of heart or intent.
"Honestness" is a fastness, like "earnestness", like the romantic ideal of Elizabethan love, Wordwind.
It is not temporal, or abridgeable, or conditional, like "honesty", which in our society is nothing more than a soluble pledge, whether to a lover or an employer or a friend or to someone who trusts us.
It is unconditional.
It is a duty. No, it is beyond duty.
It is a fastness to a principle, not just to a person.
A fastness which is unshakeable, which cannot be shaken; a fastness which is tethered to something which is absolute, which is beyond understanding, and beyond questioning.
Like a faith. But not a faith. More like "honor". Or "nobility".
Not courage because it is more indomitable than courage.
Such a state of mind, such a fastness, such an earnestness, is hardly within the ken of our culture today, Wordwind.
