Authenticity

Authenticity

July 1, 2026

Authenticity. What is it? It’s hard to see in those about us; but easy to feel. Igor, the hunchback in the Lion Story of Bedtime Stories That Will Terrify Children, has it.

Igor didn’t have much luck coming into this life. Through no fault of his own, he arrived deformed, dysarthric, and with dysconjugate gaze. In his childhood, however, there must have been someone who loved him, because he has found a way through the uncaring pathways of this world. Igor, has become the night janitor in the Wimpole Street School of the Stories. Igor, cleans.

Igor is no different from any of the rest of us. He has struggled to understand who he is; who he might become; what is possible for him. More than that, he has committed himself to being that person who he is, and not someone else. He cleans to the best of his abilities. He contributes to his community using what gifts he has been given. These, are the elements of authenticity. We all seek to do the same.

The children of the Wimpole School fear Igor greatly, because of his deformities; because they do not know him. Igor understands this. Part of who we are is not up to us; it comes to us from the world around us. Igor accepts this. He does not pretend to be someone he is not. There is a loneliness to it, but is there not a heart of loneliness to us all?

But part of who we are is up to us; the becoming part; the selves which are projected into an uncertain future. In the Lion Story, of a sudden, something more is demanded of Igor.

On the winter storm night of the Lion Story, a small boy, Randy of the Stories, has been left behind in the School. Igor finds him, alone in the depths of a red light lit corridor, sitting on the tile floor. This is something altogether new for Igor. For Igor, as for Randy, as for the rest of us, there is always something new which we must become, until the last day.

Igor is slow, but not hesitant. He goes to Randy, hunchy stepping, self mumbling, in the way that God has given him. Randy, prepares himself for the worst. Igor reaches Randy, then hunches himself over him. Igor reaches down one clawish clumsy hand … of kindness. Randy takes the hand. Randy stands up to his full height, of about three feet. Together, claw in hand, Randy and Igor step slide walk together to the School Office, where Igor helps Randy to call the Mom, to come to get him.

Neither Randy, nor Igor shall be the same after this night of the winter storm.