The Nature of Things

Authenticity. That's a word that has been spouted a lot recently, mostly by supporters of certain politicians who claim that their candidates invented the quality. Of course, what they really mean is that their candidate espouses their favorite ideas and prejudices. It is a misuse, a bastardization, of a perfectly good and descriptive word. I know that because I know what true authenticity looks like. Photo by Marty Stuart Merle Ronald Haggard April 6, 1937 - April 6, 2016 An authentic American original   I came inside from working in my garden in the mid-afternoon yesterday and went to my computer to check on what was happening in the world. In the middle of the screen at The New York Times website was the picture and the headline: Merle Haggard, Country Music's Outlaw Hero, Dies at 79 . I felt my heart give a lurch as if my world had shifted on its axis.  I grew up with country music. That and gospel were the only kinds of music my parents listened to, and so, of course, wh...