How do you define authentic?
In asking that question, I want to address three main ideas in this post:
- What’s lost between feeling and telling
- The paradox to sharing your unfiltered self/content/experiences
- Charm vs. connection
WARNING: This post is gonna get a little gritty. While I don’t want to get into a battle of semantics (which, let’s be real – could be its own separate blog post), I do want to write about a topic that fires me up.
I hate to create a prerequisite to a post, but I strongly recommend having read “The Inner Ring” by C.S. Lewis. If you did take my advice last week and already read it – HELL YEAH!!! I am totally giving you a high five right now.
I. WHAT’S LOST BETWEEN FEELING AND TELLING
It’s the subliminal moment ending as soon as you’re aware of it. The purity of your art changing as you document it. High culture to pop culture. Product not content.
So… how do you keep the integrity of YOU, and what you stand for, in a way that doesn’t put up a front?
How do you protect your art and your truest self from getting watered down, in order to appeal to a larger audience?
Are you relying on labels or declarations to identify yourself?
Does what’s “trending” drive what you choose to share or how you choose to share it?
II. THE PARADOX OF SHARING YOUR UNFILTERED SELF/CONTENT/EXPERIENCE
Think about social media. Think about the pictures and videos you choose to share, and the pictures and videos you choose to “like”. Of course there is no right or wrong.
Though I can only speak for myself, I know I’m not alone in saying that I have a very love/hate relationship with social media. It’s an incredible platform to share, learn, and connect. The amount of readily accessible, mind-blowing information out there is unreal, in the best way. But there’s also this inherent desire and dare I say obligation now, to share certain events and milestones, and within a certain “socially acceptable” framing. As if an incredible experience – alone or with others – “didn’t happen” or can’t be “checked off” until it’s documented.
Here’s where I feel most conflicted: it seems damn near impossible to capture those moments that are most precious. Maybe I’m just being a perfectionist here. But hear me out:
The process of capturing – isn’t it inherently filtered?
Unless you are fortunate enough to have a professional photographer following you around & snapping candid photos (and, I would even extend that to having that photographer capture your life WITHOUT YOU KNOWING they were there), it’s really freakin hard to capture moments most authentically.
Am I saying no one should ever pose for a picture? Of course not. But I would argue that candid photos offer more depth than posed photos. And I would also argue that the effort put into trying to capture a moment often either takes away from that moment, or filters it. Up to you to answer honestly if that filter is for the better, but think about it.
Let me end this section with this positive statement: I really love when people share what is meaningful to them.
III. CHARM VS. CONNECTION
Charm. No need to define it, it’s one of those things you either feel or don’t feel. We all know people in our life who just have that charm about them – and who doesn’t like to be around that?? To a certain extent, everyone possesses their own charm and has the power to radiate it accordingly.
Though authenticity can and often does encompass charm, can you recognize when charm is being exploited?
.
.
.
My intention with this post is not to criticize or complain about what I consider discrepancies in authenticity. I would, however, like to spark more discussion about awareness & reflection of what we consider to be undoubtedly “authentic”. Mostly because I’m calling bullshit. To a lot of it.
Let’s be real – we’re all smart enough to know how to shape our perceptions to fit the narrative that works for us.
.
.
.
For now, here’s my take: When someone or something is truly authentic, there is a rare richness and depth that will light your life up in a fulfilling way. I asked a few weeks back, “What are you searching for?”
For me, the answer to that is wholeheartedly, more authentic.
.
.
.
Food for thought until next time, a quote on beauty:
“I think I can’t say the word ‘beauty’ without also equating it with the word ‘transcendence,’ because it seems like there’s so many different things that are beautiful to so many different people. But I think beauty is often an encapsulation of a lot of different things in a certain moment – a frame, let’s say. It could be music. It could be a poem. It could be an event. It could be in nature – and often, possibly most often, in nature. But when that encapsulated form is received, there’s a moment of reception and cognition of the thing that is, in some ways, startling.
And the moment you solve an equation. The moment that something is revealed, either in your own head or physically, materially revealed. When that moment happens, when, in the Sistine Chapel, when you see the finger – Adam just about to touch – there’s that moment where something is being transferred. I think even when we observe nature – so if we are part of nature and we observe nature, but we’re part of the human realm, and there’s that moment which – essentially, there’s a transfer of life. So even if you think nature is inanimate, and therefore – but the beauty of nature, it’s the human cognition of that vastness, the awe and the wonder, something that’s in a way, bigger than yourself.”
– Yo-Yo Ma