{"id":5038,"date":"2011-05-05T06:00:11","date_gmt":"2011-05-05T10:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/?p=5038"},"modified":"2011-05-04T16:28:53","modified_gmt":"2011-05-04T20:28:53","slug":"authenticity-and-integrity-two-spiritual-pillars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/05\/authenticity-and-integrity-two-spiritual-pillars.html","title":{"rendered":"Authenticity and Integrity: Two Spiritual Pillars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Two years ago I asked prominent psychiatrist and bestselling author Peter Kramer<\/a> to endorse my manuscript, Beyond Blue<\/a>. I have been thinking about his response ever since. He told me that he no longer blurbs books, because to blurb a book would require him to real the entire thing, from cover to cover. He would not put his name on anything unless he did. And because he did this for so long, and read so many manuscripts that he didn\u2019t like, endorsing became a painful and time-consuming exercise for him. <\/p>\n

I came away astonished at his integrity. <\/p>\n

I completely understand his rationale. He has a reputation to uphold. People like me read his words like the Bible, and place a substantial amount of trust in his judgment. He would be doing his readers a huge disservice by plastering his name on every paperback that came his way just to please an aspiring author like me or her publicist. <\/p>\n

I respect the man even more (although I would have loved his blurb) because he is so<\/strong> authentic. He won\u2019t say or write something unless he adamantly believes it. His opinions are consistent, no matter what the media is lobbying, or the messages proselytized by the pharmaceutical companies, or the shifting culture of the mental health word, depending on the favorite diagnosis of the year.<\/p>\n

He has mastered the four words of advice for pursuing spiritual excellence that St. Francis de Sales preached: \u201cBe you very well.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Yeah, well I have a ways to go before I am up there with Peter Kramer. I won\u2019t even get into my blurbing policy because it would make me look very smutty next to Kramer.<\/p>\n

However, yesterday I moved an inch closer to integrity and authenticity, inspired by the saintliness of both Kramer and de Sales.<\/p>\n

I decided to stop contributing articles to a site that had been publishing me for awhile. It\u2019s a fresh, stylish zine that offers compelling articles and engaging essays. I have nothing against their content. But it simply wasn\u2019t a good fit for me. Over the course of a few months, I felt like I was shoving my foot into platform high-heeled shoes, when I know full well that I am most comfortable in flats. I\u2019m not provocative, controversial, or any of the qualities in a blogger that they were looking for. I try to be subtle, nuanced, and horribly honest \u2013 so honest that my prose comes off sounding at times confusing and neurotic \u2026 much like my brain. I try to stay away from black and white as much as I can, because I know that the majority of my recovery exists n the gray.<\/p>\n

I remember being interviewed for the \u201cHannity & Colmes Show,\u201d<\/a> back when it aired on the Fox News Channel. The producer was grilling me on the topic of women\u2019s ordination. I think I must have said, \u201cI don\u2019t know \u2026 I guess I see it both ways \u2026.\u201d a few too many times because, with an annoyed huff, he said, \u201cYou are way<\/strong> too wishy washy for our show \u2026 sorry,\u201d and hung up. <\/p>\n

I took it as the highest compliment. Yes!<\/strong> My therapy has paid off! I no longer suffer from zebra think! I have been cured!<\/p>\n

I think Mother Nature has graciously endowed all of us with an \u201cauthenticity\u201d alarm to keep us going in the right direction, but we are pretty good at pushing snooze, or setting three alarms like I do in the morning … and press snooze on all those. I\u2019m getting better at identifying that sick-to-my-stomach feeling \u2026 the one in which you know that something is slightly off, that your integrity is hanging out the window like your dog\u2019s head in the summer \u2026 but you kind of like the breeze so you keep it out there. And then bam! You hit a tree. (Or another dog\u2019s head hanging out of the car next to you.)<\/p>\n

However, when you work as hard as I do at staying honest with yourself, you can\u2019t afford to hit too many trees. If you want to stay out of the hospital, it\u2019s simply not an option.<\/p>\n

Which really sucks. <\/p>\n

Because integrity, it seems, is never convenient. Most of the time you have to sacrifice something you wanted \u2026 like extra change in your wallet, a nice byline, some cool platform high-heeled shoes. But that\u2019s where you have to trust God. Because if you are doing the right thing, my guess is that He will take care of you. And you\u2019ll be able to sleep very soundly at night, like Peter Kramer does.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of njit.edu.<\/p>\n

* Click here to subscribe to Beyond Blue<\/b><\/a> and click here to follow Therese on Twitter<\/b><\/a> and click here to join Group Beyond Blue<\/b><\/a>, a depression support group. Now stop clicking.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two years ago I asked prominent psychiatrist and bestselling author Peter Kramer to endorse my manuscript, Beyond Blue. I have been thinking about his response ever since. He told me that he no longer blurbs books, because to blurb a book would require him to real the entire thing, from cover to cover. He would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration-and-prayer","category-mental-health"],"yoast_head":"\nAuthenticity and Integrity: Two Spiritual Pillars - Beyond Blue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/05\/authenticity-and-integrity-two-spiritual-pillars.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Authenticity and Integrity: Two Spiritual Pillars - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two years ago I asked prominent psychiatrist and bestselling author Peter Kramer to endorse my manuscript, Beyond Blue. I have been thinking about his response ever since. He told me that he no longer blurbs books, because to blurb a book would require him to real the entire thing, from cover to cover. He would…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/05\/authenticity-and-integrity-two-spiritual-pillars.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-05T10:00:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-04T20:28:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/2011\/05\/pillars-201x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Authenticity and Integrity: Two Spiritual Pillars - Beyond Blue","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/05\/authenticity-and-integrity-two-spiritual-pillars.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Authenticity and Integrity: Two Spiritual Pillars - Beyond Blue","og_description":"Two years ago I asked prominent psychiatrist and bestselling author Peter Kramer to endorse my manuscript, Beyond Blue. I have been thinking about his response ever since. He told me that he no longer blurbs books, because to blurb a book would require him to real the entire thing, from cover to cover. He would…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/05\/authenticity-and-integrity-two-spiritual-pillars.html","og_site_name":"Beyond Blue","article_published_time":"2011-05-05T10:00:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-05-04T20:28:53+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/2011\/05\/pillars-201x300.jpg"}],"author":"Beyond Blue","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/05\/authenticity-and-integrity-two-spiritual-pillars.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/05\/authenticity-and-integrity-two-spiritual-pillars.html","name":"Authenticity and Integrity: Two Spiritual Pillars - Beyond Blue","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/05\/authenticity-and-integrity-two-spiritual-pillars.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/05\/authenticity-and-integrity-two-spiritual-pillars.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/2011\/05\/pillars-201x300.jpg","datePublished":"2011-05-05T10:00:11+00:00","dateModified":"2011-05-04T20:28:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/47318cdf8063cc052eccff0c99db4e75"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/05\/authenticity-and-integrity-two-spiritual-pillars.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/05\/authenticity-and-integrity-two-spiritual-pillars.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/05\/authenticity-and-integrity-two-spiritual-pillars.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/2011\/05\/pillars-201x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/files\/2011\/05\/pillars-201x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2011\/05\/authenticity-and-integrity-two-spiritual-pillars.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Authenticity and Integrity: Two Spiritual Pillars"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/","name":"Beyond Blue","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Therese J. Borchard","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/47318cdf8063cc052eccff0c99db4e75","name":"Beyond Blue","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/45c\/45c6e619a20a364bd981e9dda64eaa02x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/45c\/45c6e619a20a364bd981e9dda64eaa02x96.jpg","caption":"Beyond Blue"},"description":"Therese J. Borchard writes the daily blog, Beyond Blue, on Beliefnet.com. She is the author of Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes and The Pocket Therapist. You may find her at her personal blog, her website, or you may follow her on Twitter @thereseborchard.","sameAs":["http:\/\/thereseborchard.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/author\/tborchard"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5038"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5045,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5038\/revisions\/5045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}