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Lokai Bracelets and the Human Quest for Authenticity




You've probably seen these. If you are in high school (or a teacher), you definitely have.
Image result for lokai bracelet

The message is good. Water from Mt. Everest to remind you to stay humble during the best of times. Mud from Dead Sea to remind you to stay hopeful during the worst of times.

A real one is $18. I've seen knockoffs for much cheaper. But for the $18, you get a guarantee of... something.

The beads are authenticated by FTI consulting. As near as I can tell, they don't do the tests themselves. They just promise that they saw the tests being done. Notice what the certificate doesn't say: It says nothing about where the mud and water came from. Just that there is mud and water there.


 Would you, without access to a laboratory, be able to determine if the water were from the tap or Everest? No. So the question really becomes one of faith: do you trust the people who are selling these bracelets not to lie to you? If you do, the bracelets are worth the hype. If you do not, then you sneer at those who buy them. After much reflection, I find myself somewhere in the middle. After all, faith in God is a matter of trust as well.

For me, a much more interesting point is: does it matter? If the purpose of the bracelet is to serve as a reminder, does it matter if there tap water, rainwater, or even any water at all in the white bead? If it is merely a reminder, can't I just tie a piece of colored string around my wrist?

The fact is that humans crave authenticity. We want to know that things are genuine, unique. For example: Van Gogh's Cafe Terrace at Night. Mrs. Goertz and I have a canvas print in our dining room. To the untrained eye, it looks just as good as the original, which is somewhere in the Netherlands I believe.


No one would argue that ours is worth as much as the original, even though the original is much older and not in as good of condition. People want the true version. They want it to be real.

That's why our students went to Europe over Spring Break, to experience authenticity. I can watch documentaries about the Coliseum. I can run a 3D simulation of walking on the Acropolis. But for some reason, we want to be there. It's not enough to just see a thing. We want to see the real thing and we're willing to pay for it. It's the difference between watching a wonderful recording of a great opera and seeing a mediocre performance of the same opera.

Why is authenticity so important? Philosophy has a lot to say on this, but this post is already a lot longer than I had intended, so I won't go into that here. My idea has to do with how we are made. As Mrs. Ochoa says, our God is a God of relationships. Therefore, we crave authentic connection with each other and with the world. We feel differently when we are surrounded by real friends, real art, real adventure. It is what we are made for.

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