Authenticity

Of course, one must be authentic. One shouldn't smoke a particular brand of cigarette because Sally does. One shouldn't become a chartered surveyor because Uncle Alan suggested it.

But becoming a renegade in reaction to the conventional, material world is still to be defined by it. That's not authentic.

And listing all the ways I'm special and different: essentially everything that identifies me as me and not you is not authentic either. Why? Because the differences are artefacts. The similarity, spirit, is who I am.

My authentic self is just another person, just like you. I might have tasks to perform which are particular to me, but these are not me: they're my path. The water in all of the rivulets of a delta is all the water of the Great River, and it's about to join the Great Sea.