1. David Wallace’s ‘This is Water’ commencement speech to the graduating class at Kenyon is best summarized as a message about how none of us are alone and the real value of our education is in relation to living, not just working. Specifically Wallace talks about the power of making decisions, being mindful of others, and the significance of paying attention/being aware of your perspective. Wallace claims that the liberal education is really supposed to be about, “how to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head.” (5.) Wallace means that liberal education doesn’t teach us what to think, but it teaches us about the decisions we can choose to make. He uses metaphorical stories within his speech, specifically the story about 2 fish. An older fish and a younger fish who doesn’t know what water is because he has never left the bowl. This story is about perspective and realities. The older fish who left the bowl only knows what water is because he became an observer rather than the center, and the younger fish having only ever lived in this bowl of water, doesn’t even know anything else. Wallace uses stories like these to implement the importance of mindfulness and perspective on our human life.
2. I think DFW makes a lot of strong points in his essay, all of which I agree with. One of his main arguments that humans are by nature self-centered, and this is our “Default setting” really stuck with me. I think is one of those statements people want to challenge but fail to, because it is a fact not an opinion. I think Wallace’s claims are well developed and difficult to counter.
3. Yes I believe he is indirectly addressing the concept of empathy. When Wallace encourages his audience to open their eyes and become more aware of the realities around them, he is also encouraging us to see other people in a more intimate and caring way. When we see others as extensions of ourselves with their own thoughts and feelings, we are indirectly empathizing with them.
4. The quote, “learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed,” is one that has really evoked a strong response in me because of the way it fits into my own life. Suffering from mental illness for many years, as well as losing a brother to suicide, alters the way you perceive life. I often feel not in control of my own thoughts, I often focus on the losses, failures, and frustrations of life rather than the beauty. This quote made me realize that I might have the power to change my thought process, and that my future depends on my ability to alter my perceptions.