3.31.2009

authentic irritation

au-then-tic [aw-then-tik]
–adjective
  1. not false or copied; genuine; real: an authentic antique.
  2. having the origin supported by unquestionable evidence; authenticated; verified: an authentic document of the Middle Ages; an authentic work of the old master.
  3. entitled to acceptance or belief because of agreement with known facts or experience; reliable; trustworthy: an authentic report on poverty in Africa.
  4. Law. executed with all due formalities: an authentic deed.
  5. Music.
  6. Obsolete. authoritative.
- from dictionary.com


"With 'slow living' as the newest incarnation of the simplicity movement, the search for fresh inspiration on ways to live a more authentic life is as pressing as ever. Turning to Eastern traditions, people are discovering the Japanese concept of wabi sabi."

- from an amazon.com review of some wabi-sabi book or another


even more fodder for my hatred of this term, "authentic". does anyone else find this sentence ironic, oxymoronic, even? "with 'slow living' as the newest incarnation of the simplicity movement, the search for fresh ... ways to live a more authentic life is as pressing as ever."

as pressing as ever.

isn't the whole idea of 'wabi-sabi' to relax and not feel "pressured"?!?

not to mention that, sorry to say, no life is authentic. we're all copies. imperfect copies of imperfect copies. and using the term "authentic" to describe the way one lives is, simply put, absolute fucking bullshit.

you live your life, i'll live mine. i'll try to eat local, recycle, consume less, travel abroad, enrich my experiences. eat squid and snow pea leaves and pork floss and enjoy tasty, tasty duck. use turkish toilets and wander odiferous meat markets in china (the noodles here are amazing, btw). you go ahead and eat at chili's and lonestar and applebee's. never travel outside the country and out of state maybe once in your lifetime. but that doesn't mean that my life is more "authentic" than yours. we're both alive. and, hopefully, we're both enjoying our lives. enjoy your children, i'll enjoy my cats.

the wabi-sabi concept is intriguing, however. very simple and refreshing. kind of "duh", but maybe that's just me. the term rhymes too much for me to take it seriously and it just reminds me of the feng shui fad a few years back.


i have lots of thoughts about jimothy's post, however, nothing i can put into cohesive words. lots of detail thoughts, but no big picture.

edge cities. suburban vs. urban. local vs. chain. i'm not always good at taking one side or another. the fence top is lovely and one can see for miles. i can see the benefits and loves of both sides. maybe if public transportation were better, such sprawl wouldn't be so painful. and there you go, that last sentence perhaps sums up my thoughts on it all.

this post is getting less cohesive by the moment. i'm fraying, i fear.

*le sigh*

last night, something painful squirrelled its way into my eyeball and after frantic maddened rubbing and an attempt to flush the offending pine cone out from my socket, i awoke today with the eye almost sealed shut. not so pleasant and the right side of my face feels sleepy.

i'm looking forward to: dinner with anthony, wine and mr. darcy with rachel. and an ice pack for my eyeball.

2 comments:

.......... said...

you tell them!

Sleep Goblin said...

i think it's kind of funny that you care so much :) this is the type of stuff i scroll quickly through on google reader without even reading. not that i'm disagreeing with your view point.