ESSENCE AND NAME

ESSENCE IS MORE BASIC THAN IDENTITY.

Flume is an integrative knowledge-based company that blends three modes of being:

Socially entrepreneurial. As an L3C, Flume integrates the best of business and social work to ensure it is agile, transparent, embodies the human element, and always aimed at human flourishing.

Think Tank. Flume is a humanities-rich think tank dedicated to fostering clarity in the minds and cultures of global citizens—cultivating societies that brim with the true, the good, the beautiful, and the felt human experience. It pursues fulfills this identity by discerning the root causes of cultural decay and societal polarization, understanding the nature and formative power of worldviews, and illuminating the shared essence and inherent dignity of every human person.

Creative. Flume exists to foster the human element in and through every area of the public square by telling a better story—one that is comprehensive, cohesive, humane, redemptive, and helps good overcomes evil.

From this integrative mode of being flows all of current and future Flume’s works: Academic Studio, Imprint, Idea(l) Development and Consulting, and on-line presence via Substack and select social media platforms.

NAME

People often ask where the name “Flume” comes from. It’s not from Bon Iver’s amazing song, but if you thought so we won’t correct you. Anyway, for us, here is where our name comes from:

Flume (flu:m; floom), noun.

from Old French flum, from Latin flumen “river”, from fluere “to flow.”

  1. A deep narrow channel or ravine with a mountain stream or torrent running through it.

  2. An artificial channel conveying water; utilizes the inherent power of nature to transport heavy materials such as logs or timber.

  3. A water-chute ride at an amusement park.

  4. The “lum” of the word is also the Latin root for: light, to shine, or to enlighten, as in with meaning, truth, and knowledge via the power of words.

All together, by maximizing the inherent potentials of the felt human experience, through the power of words, the name “Flume” summarizes our desire to be a conduit of clarity, truth, creativity, humanity, peace, and redemption, in and through every area of life, society, and culture—a means to capture, convey, channel, and redemptively cultivate the good, true, and beautiful worldwide, for our generation and those to come.