Live Authentic

Live Authentic

I know. The grammar is messed up. But it mirrors the tagline for UCHealth, which has annoyed me for years: Live Extraordinary.

I’m sure UCHealth paid handsomely for a marketing firm to come up with their tagline. I'd say they got their money's worth, because I'm writing about it now; it caught my attention in a way that Live Extraordinarily would not have.

Thus: Live Authentic

With our increasing awareness that Facebook and social media is about making our information and attention a commodity to be sold and manipulated, I’m intentionally spending less time on “virtual” and more on “authentic.”

Why don’t you join me in doing a little life audit to rethink the opportunities we have and the choices we make, overlaid (or even delayed) with the realities of the pandemic.

• Instead of watching a cooking show on TV, how about cooking something in the kitchen?

• Instead of privately listening to music on earbuds, how about attending a live concert?

• Instead of watching a nature video on YouTube, how about spending time immersed in nature?

• Instead of typing chat messages with a good friend online, how about getting together for coffee?

• Instead of watching a worship service online, how about showing up to be a part of the embodied presence of the community?

• What else?

I’m increasingly trying to make choices like that. To Live Authentic. It takes effort, but it shifts our perspective and, I'm convinced, speaks to and fulfills our spiritual longings for an embodied relationship with creation and one another.