salut, Jack

I'm thinking today about Jack Layton, dead at 61. I watched him on YouTube, touring Rick Mercer through his Toronto home, chatting in Cantonese with his mother-in-law. I found myself grinning at the photo of him cycling with his wife, Olivia Chow, in Toronto's Gay Pride parade. I read his open letter to Canadians, written a couple of days ago when clearly he understood he was nearing the end of this particular walk.

There's a lot of strength in this man--strength & candour & good humor. A lot of us have taken him to heart because he just feels so authentic--and authenticity is an increasingly rare commodity in public life.

Advertising guru Terry O'Reilly had a segment on CBC recently about how sharply tuned we humans are to authenticity. When something sounds contrived, we are quick to reduce our expectations about the truth factor.

Authenticity is at the heart of what writer/researcher Brené Brown calls whole-heartedness. The people who live the fullest lives with the greatest resilience and impact on their world have this one quality in common: they engage their lives whole-heartedly, embracing their mistakes, celebrating their successes, & appreciating the value of every moment, no matter how trivial.

Jack Layton certainly lived whole-heartedly, and judging by the open letter he wrote to us all a couple of days ago, he lived that way until he died. Here's his parting wish:

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world.