Roxanne Abbas writes:
> When I conform to society's expectations, then I lack integrity,
> authenticity. Living an authentic life is great and very difficult in
> itself, however, your message challenges me to go the next step.
> I guess I can accept that the person who rejects me simply isn't on the
> same plane as me and I'd much rather be rejected than have the person fake
> acceptance. Any suggestions on how to continue working on this?
If I had really good suggestions I could probably write a bestselling
self-help book :-). One thing that strikes me from your message, and
motivated me in selecting the excerpts above: unless we're complete
loners, we can only be "truly ourselves" within the context of the society
we live in. By living with others, we accept a certain degree of
limitation on our words and actions. In this context, integrity and
authenticity have to be part of our social being (and becoming) as well as
our individual being (and becoming). (I use the word "we" in a literal as
well as literary sense: I too have been struggling with the apparent
paradox of "living gently" with others while serving my own core needs and
values. In particular, it's led to a constant reworking of my
relationships with my spouse and children.)
--Don Dwiggins, Beta Version 0.8 (Version 1.0 due for release Real Soon Now) SEI Information Technology d.l.dwiggins@computer.org
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