Now that we’re past the Grammys and the Academy Awards season, how about if instead of celebrating celebrity and stardom, we celebrated people who are just truly good and authentic?
Authenticity. I am in so much need of it right now.
The lies in Washington, the scandals, the wealthy and powerful men exploiting young girls and women, and the elected officials putting their own access to money and influence ahead of the good of the country.
Is there anyone authentic left in America?
By definition, a person who is completely trustworthy is authentic. Authentic people are genuine, sincere and unadulterated.
You might say America, with its long and over bloated obsession with the very rich and famous, has always had a problem with authenticity. Think P.T. Barnum.
“It is the vulgarity of this country — which came to us, with commerce, out of England — to believe that naked wealth, unrelieved by any use or design, is merit,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson at Williams College in 1854.
Emerson, the Unitarian transcendentalist, is about the closest I’ll get to a spiritual guide and, to me, represents the very best in our American collective consciousness. If you want to study authenticity, study him.
It’s very hard to find authenticity in public life where crowd pleasing outweighs virtue, fairness and decency.
In politics, I have seldom seen authenticity. In my adulthood, as a reporter and as a military officer, I can count on my fingers the number of elected officials I can truly say were authentic.
Even though I rarely agreed with him on the issues, I had enormous respect for the late Sen. John McCain, the maverick who was guided by his principles and was definitely authentic. His buddy, Lindsey Graham, and his running mate, Sarah Palin, are definitely not.
Among artists, David Bowie was the epitome of authenticity. So is Bruce Springsteen.
When I was young, I looked up to military figures like Chuck Yeager, Neil Armstrong and John Glenn. They were humble and lived by a code of honor, yet they pushed the envelope. They had, as author Tom Wolfe would write, “The Right Stuff.”
As you might think, there’s also a cool factor when it comes to being authentic.
In sports, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Bill Russell and Larry Bird had it. Alex Rodriguez — “A-Rod” — nope.
You don’t have to be an astronaut or David Bowie’s Major Tom or a sports legend to be authentic.
There are people you know every day who I’m sure you look up to because they are authentic. Tell them.
In my book, calling someone authentic is the highest compliment.
On the local scene, I’ve only met and talked with Lindsay Sabadosa and Jo Comerford a few times, but I can tell you, they are both authentic.
My friends, Steve Connor, the veterans’ services director in our region, and Chris Lizotte, his counterpart in West Springfield, are both selfless and self-effacing. They are authentic.
Hopefully the people closest to you are authentic, too. I can’t imagine going through life without loved ones and close friends who weren’t authentic.
My wife, Denise, who sacrificed so much while we went from place to place in the military, never complained. And I’ve always loved her for her unabashed honesty.
Those who know Denise love her because she speaks up and is totally unapologetic when it comes to the things she values the most — her family and social justice. She, my dear love of my life, is most definitely authentic.
While I was off and about doing my time in the military, she was raising our two kids and, today, I’m proud to say, they are authentic too.
“We don’t care what you do in this life but what we do care about is that you are kind to others and that you stay true to yourself,” we told our kids. That and “choose your friends wisely,” we added.
I want leaders and people around me who value integrity and fight for what’s right and who strive to be authentic.
CNN’s Chris Cuomo recently noted why Trump supporters continue to support him and shrug off his lies. It’s telling and frightening and right on the money.
“Trump is everything people do expect in a politician these days — lies, deceit, allergic to responsibility, constant disrespect of others,” Cuomo said.
After years of scandals, congressional inaction, broken promises and corruption, people, Cuomo said, have zero respect for our institutions and see the president’s crassness and indecency as “effective weapons in a land of bad people.”
Is the president a metaphor for the country we have become? Maybe. But, if we — one person and one community at a time — can show, by example, what it looks like to live a life of authenticity, we can show the rest of the nation that we are better than the ugliness that’s out there right now. We shouldn’t settle for anything less. Be authentic. In the Academy Awards of life, there’s no truer and more important badge of honor.
John Paradis, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, lives in Florence and writes a column published the second Friday of the month. He can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.