Merriam-Webster broadly defines the word thankful as
glad that something has happened or not happened, that something or someone exists, etc.
I'm working myself into the habit of writing something that I'm thankful for on a post-it note whenever I get stressed about school or other things, and I put the post-its on a map of Sequoia National Park that I have pinned onto the wall next to my bed. As a whole, they serve as a reminder that I have much more than what I've written down to be thankful for, especially when I'm wracking my brain and thinking about how I'll be done with college in less than two weeks.
The number one thing that I'm really thankful for is my family, and it's hard to express this gratitude on paper (let alone a blog post). I've been really blessed with loving parents, tolerable (just kidding) brothers, grandparents that have been and are top-notch, and an extended network of cousins, aunts, and uncles that are pretty great. None of us are perfect, but we're still family.
The word authentic and the themes associated with it have been stuck in my head throughout these past few months due to thesis (because as mentioned in earlier posts, our projects this semester need to be based around that word). But this isn't a word confined to just our class—it's a huge, relevant topic right now. Joseph Pine, a writer and consultant, talks in a TED talk about how we've moved from an economy based on commodities to one that is based on experiences, and to him authenticity is key to these experiences. Yet he also argues that there is no such thing as authenticity.
It's just the real me. Be yourself. Do you. While all of these statements have merit, I feel like if perceived as absolutes they are false. Without a doubt though, these are things that have not been uttered completely unfounded. People and myself are becoming aware of socialization, as Heidegger once wrote,
"Everyone is the other, and no one is himself."
And now, through methods such as social media, we post as if to declare not only our existence, but a unique existence at that.
In my mind, as I feel like those earlier statements, the ones that urge people to authenticity, have value, I feel like being aware of socialization and striving for authenticity is also valuable. However, my concern is that we take things too far and in that process become lost within ourselves. Erwin McManus, lead pastor of Mosaic church in Los Angeles, writes,
"Our claim that we are committed to being authentic can actually be a façade for self-indulgence."
Once again it seems like things are coming to a point where a balance is required. I've come to a similar place in thought before, when thinking about the balance between thinking and making within the design process. Yet with all of this, I feel like things are a little different. It isn't so much about being stable within two polarized points, but having the right perspective while moving forward. Where does that perspective come from? Kierkegaard wrote,
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
So I suppose you could say that it's living life that helps you understand it (in addition to other benefits).
I think I have digressed and wandered enough for now though. What I really want to simply say is that I'm thankful for my entire family, I'm thankful to be a part of my family, and I look forward to where my family goes and how it grows in the days to come. I do not mind their influence, yet I understand that I am me, and that our differences as individuals makes the existence of unity within our family all the more sublime. Hegel once wrote,
"The bud disappears when the blossom breaks through, and we might say that the former is refuted by the latter; in the same way when the fruit comes, the blossom may be explained to be a false form of the plant’s existence, for the fruit appears as its true nature in place of the blossom. The ceaseless activity of their own inherent nature makes these stages moments of an organic unity, where they not merely do not contradict one another, but where one is as necessary as the other; and constitutes thereby the life of the whole."
As I was writing earlier, I think I've discovered my personal definition for authenticity. I need to mull it over a little bit, but it's fairly basic and based on something that Erwin McManus also said.
"To be authentic means literally that we are not false or copied, that we reflect the original, that we are genuine in regard to the intent of the creator."
So if such is one definition of authenticity, than it simply becomes a matter of deciding where things begin, and from where they come from.
With such a definition of authenticity in mind, I have made my decision regarding what I believe the original is, and more importantly by whom it was made.
I'm thankful for my family.
I'm thankful that design exists because it allows me to put all my meandering thoughts into something cohesive.
I'm thankful for the quotes section on Goodreads, which can make anyone who knows how to copy and paste look like they read real books.
