David Foster Wallace’s 2005 Kenyon College commencement address, later published as “This Is Water: Some Thoughts on the Nature of the University,” offers a profound and deceptively simple challenge to the prevailing modes of thought and perception. Far from a typical graduation speech, Wallace eschews platitudes about future success and instead confronts his audience with the gritty, often frustrating reality of everyday conscious experience. His central argument is that the true struggle of adult life lies not in external achievements, but in the internal, constant effort to choose where to place one’s attention and to cultivate genuine empathy in a world that often encourages self-absorption. By urging graduates to recognize the inherent difficulty and importance of conscious awareness, Wallace provides a framework for a more meaningful and less self-centered existence.
Wallace begins by painting a stark picture of the default human setting: a self-centered perspective where every experience is filtered through the lens of personal inconvenience and desire. He illustrates this with a vivid, albeit darkly humorous, anecdote about two young fish encountering an older fish who asks, “How’s the water?” The young fish swim on, oblivious, because “water” is simply the medium of their existence, not something they actively perceive. This, Wallace argues, is analogous to human consciousness. We are so immersed in our own internal narratives – our worries, our desires, our frustrations – that we often fail to see the world and the people in it as they are, independent of our own needs. This default setting, while perhaps a survival mechanism, leads to a life of unthinking, automatic reactions, where we operate as the center of the universe, perpetually annoyed by the inconveniences that life inevitably throws our way, whether it’s a slow cashier at the grocery store or a traffic jam.
The essay’s core thesis emerges as Wallace challenges us to actively fight against this default setting. He posits that the real “freedom” offered by a liberal education isn’t the ability to think anything we want, but the harder, more crucial ability to “stop thinking, or at least stop thinking that way.” This involves a deliberate, conscious effort to choose what to be conscious of. It means acknowledging the inherent worth and complexity of others, even when their actions grate on us. Wallace doesn’t offer a magical solution but emphasizes that this is a continuous, demanding practice. He suggests that cultivating empathy requires looking beyond our immediate frustrations and considering the unseen realities of others. The slow cashier, for instance, might be dealing with immense personal hardship, not simply being deliberately obtuse. This shift in perspective, this conscious choice to see beyond the self, is what Wallace champions as the ultimate educational and personal achievement.
Wallace further elaborates on the difficulty of this endeavor by acknowledging that it’s not inherently appealing. Our natural inclinations pull us towards comfort, self-preservation, and the ease of judgment. He observes that the “temptation to be selfish is enormous.” The supermarket scenario, for example, is a perfect illustration of how easily we can fall back into self-centered thinking, cataloging the perceived injustices inflicted upon us. The true work, then, is in consciously resisting this temptation. It’s about recognizing that such moments are opportunities to exercise our free will, not to indulge in resentment, but to choose a different, more compassionate response. This active engagement with our own thoughts and reactions is what distinguishes a life lived consciously from one lived on autopilot.
In conclusion, “This Is Water” is not merely a commencement address; it is a vital philosophical treatise disguised as humble advice. David Foster Wallace’s enduring message is that the most significant battles we face are internal, fought in the quiet moments of our daily lives. By confronting the pervasive nature of self-centeredness and advocating for the conscious cultivation of empathy and attention, Wallace provides a powerful call to action. He urges us to embrace the inherent difficulty of truly seeing and understanding the world around us, thereby transforming the mundane into an arena for profound personal growth and connection. The water, in Wallace’s telling, is the constant, often unnoticed stream of our own existence, and learning to navigate it with awareness is the ultimate challenge.