Thursday Thinking - Day In, Day Out

During a commencement address at Kenyon College in 2005, David Foster Wallace candidly shared his personal views about how to think about the day ins and day outs life. After his death, the speech was reprinted in The Wall Street Journal and the London Times, and eventually in book form with the title, THIS IS WATER.

With wit and a congenial straightforwardness, Wallace calls his listeners to wake up to life, to think compassionately about others, and to stop being the center of their conciousness. He challenges them to notice the things around them, the mundane, the everyday, the annoying, the boring, and the irritating. This is not easy, he says, it takes will and effort, and some days you will not be able to or you just won't want to do it. But most days, if you're aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look at things differently.

Someone, I think it was Woody Allen, once said that 90% of life is just showing up. If that's true, then David Foster Wallace makes a good case for the most important 10% to be living with awareness.

Glossary.com has released a short film that creatively illustrates an excerpt of the speech using a recording of the original presentation as its soundtrack. Give it a few minutes to see what you think. If you think it has something worth passing along to others, do so. It's probably better than most of the commencement speeches the graduates in your life will be hearing in the next few weeks.