“Know Thyself.” Do you?

Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd in “This is 40.”

Authenticity is “in.”  Now that we spend more on Botox and silicon than, well, a lot of other stuff, people crave authenticity.  Go figure. The writer and director of the new hit movie “This is Forty” (Judd Apatow) is riding and promoting the trend.

In a 60 Minutes interview he said, “Writing is about trying to figure something out about yourself.”  His approach magnifies awkward and embarrassing situations because they connect with us where we live and breathe. He even admits to the interviewer (Anderson Cooper) his self-conscious struggle to be real about the interview.  This attitude not only enables a more thoughtful brand of comedy, it captures a kind of dignity of the human spirit right in the very place of our deep concern and brokenness.

Consider these five challenges to “get real.”  

1)  What people in your life bring out your best?  Why?

2)  What situations make you fake it?  Name the fear.

3)  In what relationship do you repeatedly avoid saying what needs to be said?  In one sentence, what is it?

4)  Who in your life have you “punished” for being real and why?  Power?

5)  What if you took a risk?  Now, pick one.