…authenticity too
comes to be understood,
as its own goal.
It is born,
out of a shift in the center of gravity
of the moral demand on us:
self-truth and self-wholeness
are seen more and more
not as means to be moral,
as independently defined,
but as something valuable
for their own sake.

…the aesthetic wholeness
is an independent goal,
with its own telos,
its own form
of goodness and satisfaction.

The Ethics of Authenticity by Charles Taylor, The Slide to Subjectivism p. 65

The quoted lines describe a sea change of outlook for many. Not everyone of course is included. Standards of behavior linked to a family name, to a trade, particularly to a generations long position in the social order are no longer a stabilizing social force.

Increased mobility, disruption due to financial market swings, even the drumbeat of persuasive ad messaging that satisfaction derives from more consumption are only a few factors nudging me to believe that my sense of self is up to the choices that I must make.

The center no longer holds. And everything must shift along with it.

For some of us the old time religion is discredited, is simply incredulous. What sense can you possibility make that a creator being is finally responsible to resolve the charnel house of history to a just conclusion. Every day the slaughter unabates. Force yourself to believe that if you can! And what of Bible thumping literalists content to dominate women and satisfied to treat the earth as a resource for extraction – that I’d be in company with, should I hold a ticket for the Jesus train. I cannot do it. I will not.

Responsibility for a truth that is mine, for wholeness to the extent possible for me is a better bet, a more appealing option than other diaphanous options. What am I prepared to bet my life upon, the quotient of awareness that I entertain on this sultry spring day? If you are reading this you likely agree with me that the future is open, that we play with time, our intention is to enjoy the hand that we’ve been dealt by fate… And that we are finite, the ride does not last indefinitely, that good company increases the pleasure…

My faith is that there is a horizon of meaning, a web of significance between us which we’d instinctively agree upon. Here’s one.  There’s food well prepared. You like grits. I like oatmeal. You can introduce me to grits, and maybe to miso soup too for breakfast! That would be a beginning between us. And what could “truth” possibly be other than an agreed upon ground between us?

The example is of a small scale, one of the endless potential for self-creation, discovery of what lies between us. A horizon of significance exists if we desire it.

There’s a new center. It is ours. And this center holds.

No more true words have been said, “You must be born again.”

And again, and again and…

Music! Music! Another serving of rhythm, rhyme and harmony!

Contrasting the dark, mysterious performance of The Sound of Silence by Disturbed, this performance by Pentatonix highlights the majesty of homo sapiens, a meaning making mammal.