Choosing authenticity means:
– Brene Brown, “The Gifts of Imperfection”
- exercising the compassion that comes from knowing that we are all made of strength and struggle; and
I live in one of those little communities that exist all over America. The kind of place where a measurable portion of the 110 kids in the graduating class marry their high school sweetheart and buy a house just over the hill from their parents. The High School yearbooks serve as a public display of their family tree. They’re the fire company, run the Fair, and serve passionately on the school board.
A friend from one of these families said to me once, “Sometimes I wish I’d moved away because everybody still thinks of me as the 17-year-old me. I don’t like the 17-year-old me. I never did. Here I am in my mid-40’s, but I can’t escape that idiot.”
I hear that. It’s exactly why I moved away.
Labeling. We all do it, and we all suffer from it.
“Oh, you’re one of those…”
When we label, we miss the reason. And the reason is everything. The reason is the strength and struggle. Those strengths and struggles follow directly from our personal history — what we have experienced, who we have experienced, and where we have experienced.
If there’s one aspect of authenticity that will fix the ills of our society, it’s this one. Empathy.
