The Pitch Perfect Life

My wife and I recently rented Pitch Perfect. A week later I was on a flight and Pitch Perfect was the in-flight film. There are two scenes in the movie which feature vomit, lots of vomit. Girls are falling down in vomit, diving for a pitch pipe in vomit.

But on the airplane version the vomit mysteriously disappeared. Without the vomit the scenes didn’t even make sense. Anyone watching, even for the first time, would have realized that something wasn’t right with this version of the movie. But the people in charge of editing thought it was worth it, to make sure they didn’t offend the delicate sensibilities of anyone watching.

This week at Verve we talked about hypocrisy, and this is the deal with hypocrites. They edit out the ugliness of their lives for people who are watching. But without the ugly parts their lives don’t even make sense. It’s obvious something isn’t right with this version of the person’s life.

So what if we just showed everyone the vomit? What if we lived honest unmasked lives? They wouldn’t show everyone something pitch perfect, but they’d be real. And I think what people are really looking for is authenticity.