Biography

I open my RealTime Speaking courses talking about “authenticity.” I show a video clip of Mike Parsons surfing a 70-foot wave. It’s awesome. (I don’t think we’re supposed to do that kind of thing — you know, surf tsunamis!)

I use the “big wave” as a metaphor for authenticity, which I define as unlimited access to our inexhaustible creative and expressive power. I make a point of saying, “Authenticity is not about an ‘authentic self,’ a static image, idea, or purpose. Life is moving. Life is dynamic. Life is constantly inventing itself. If we are living nakedly and joyously, creatively, if we are surfing each moment with a fierce nowness and wholeheartedness, improvising and riffing with what’s all around, sensually and rapturously sliding and gliding in and out, here and there — aren’t we inventing a new self with each instant? Aren’t we creating new biographies by the hundreds and thousands, down there in the coral reefs, way down below where the waves start up with an invisible swelling of the deep sea?”

I swear! If that ain’t the truth! I can’t keep track of my biographies, they come too fast, too furious, too funnily to count. One thing I've always loved, however, and which makes me happy to be me, is a piece written by the Tami Coyne, the mother of my good friend Sophia Scorcia who is now nine years old. I met Sophia when she was three-and-a-half, and we've stayed in touch since then, even though she lives in New York and I've only met her one time. Please click here to read our story.

Enjoy your life! It’s a magnificent marvelous gift and treasure from I don’t know where.

Your friend,

Robert