This Is Water

This is a commencement speech delivered by David Foster Wallace to the graduates of a liberal arts course. The essence of this talk is the value of education, which is about “simple awareness – awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over: This is water.”

The phrase “This is water” refers to the story he mentions at the beginning of the speech, which I quote here:

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys, How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?”

This story really stuck a chord with me. Our default setting of thinking is something which needs to be transcended even in everyday situations, like driving or shopping at a supermarket. It is the natural tendency for everyone to put themselves at the center of the universe, where we think that our immediate needs and feelings should determine the priorities of the world. David says it is the purpose of education to change this, for us to learn how to be “well-adjusted”, how to consciously choose what has meaning and what does not.

This is real freedom. The freedom to be in control of our faculties, to be aware of ourselves. This needs attention, effort and awareness. This freedom requires selflessness, to put ourselves in a global or even cosmic perspective, even in the most commonplace of situations. This, David says, is the capital-T Truth about life.

Of course, all revelations fade in our minds over time. We may even operate in cycles, constantly learning and re-learning basic truths. The most important, if not the only thing I have learned from reading this book is this realization about the real freedom in life. It is the phrase which can make me remember David’s words. This is water.

This is water