With my colleague/friend I attended an event “Rebel like Simone de Beauvoir: How to live an authentic life?“. There was a lot to take away from/reflect on, about the idea of authenticity in relation to freedom, connections, oppression, and social norms.
Authenticity is the continuous process of creating one’s own essence. It’s not about discovering who you are, but intentionally choosing who you become. And this you don’t do it alone, but by engaging with others. By being an authentic human being, we are also participating in shaping the context in which others exercise their choices. No one can be realized without through others.
To be human is to be in perpetual dissatisfaction because there is always a gap between who we are and who we want to become. We keep questioning ourselves – this way we are always ‘becoming’.
Authentic love is mutual recognition of two being. Life is a tension between bring for ourselves and being for others. Two persons inter-subjectively discuss and decide what works for them, regardless of what the society says. It is an authentic relationship as long as the two are freely committed.
To rebel is to push back oppressive values and structures, which is something outside us that try to determine how we should behave, what we should do etc. De Beauvoir would tell us: Write your own script. Live your authentic life with compassion, friendship, and love. Think with me, not not necessarily like me.
Hoko Horii 