The Price of Authenticity

Bob Dylan turned 85 this year. Yes, you heard that right - the one and only folk icon is alive and kickin', still touring the world and playing shows to this day.

Bob Dylan is, and probably will forever be, my favorite musician of all time. I’ve listened to his expansive forty+ album discography practically on an endless loop ever since I was a young teenager. I even went out of my way to learn how to play the guitar and harmonica (simultaneously with the neckstrap and everything) out of admiration for the guy. My favorite track of all time “Like a Rolling Stone”, like many of his other classics, lives rent-free in my brain (welcomely I might add) to this day.

Beyond the music itself, what I love most about Dylan is how authentic he is. He never allows himself to be labeled or get stuck. Over the years, he's gone from civil rights icon… to rock n’ roll rebel… to country romantic… to Christian fanatic… to gravely-voiced Grammy winner… to even more unexpected identities.

Every step of the way, record labels and political movements alike attempted to label Dylan, hungry to claim him as their brand or agenda's spokesman. Yet Bob has never gone along with them. Instead, he's cleverly wrangled his way through six decades of the industry without succumbing to being a corporate sellout or political hack.

And to me, that's the part I find so admirable. He never lost what it means to be himself.

And in a world in which we are increasingly barraged by nonstop dopamine-inducing content complete with algorithms hell-bent on relevancy and appeal, it’s more difficult than ever to tease out what is truly us and what is someone else's opinion that we've simply adopted for ourselves, so I'd say this trait is especially admirable.

But it also comes with a steep price.

The price is the same price that Dylan himself paid. Authenticity doesn't lend itself to much consistency in life. It invites a lot of change. And actually, by definition, authenticity forces change. And that is because feelings and thoughts and values all evolve. And when we're authentic, we evolve with them.

Certainly, this can make life feel like more work than just going with the latest trends. It's up to use to decide when in life it's worth it to pay this price.