Water is one of my favorite things. I like to drink it, be in it, on it, near it, under it… Water is so mundane and normal but then it’s not. It’s kind of amazing when you think about how this clear liquid ish type substance goes into our bodies and spreads out so we can live and move and breath.
Water is also amazing because fish can breath it.
What? That is so weird and cool and there had to be someone creative that made that be a thing [thanks, God]. That there are creatures that can breath the stuff we drink. What if a fish gets thirsty? Do fish get thirsty?
A friend recently recommended a book called, “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace. My first thought was like wow, that’s not a creative title but then I read it and the title very much makes sense and is, in fact, pretty dang creative.
It is actually a graduation speech by David Foster Wallace for Kenyon College in 2005, so the book can be read in one sitting. As a recent ish grad, I can very much resonate and find meaning in his thought provoking and blunt words about a liberal arts education and adulty lives.
He talks about defying the natural default setting we are hard wired with living life centered around ourselves. He talks of the liberal arts education “teaching us how to think”, which in other words means teaching us how to filter what we think and how we think.
I very much believe that life is full of hard things and good things and mundane things and things that are out of our control. But this little read brought me back to remember that life can really be what we make it. If I am always focused on what’s wrong about my super normal and boring life, I will go crazy and never be content. I am convinced that there is something good in every day, every situation, and every person – and to see that, to focus on that good, takes work and intentionality.
How will I choose to perceive people and things and experiences? Will I be annoyed at the obnoxiously long line at Starbucks or be kind to the barista who is probably having a very stressful day? (not to mention that if I can afford Starbucks, things are honestly probably going ok).
What about the woman who can’t find her pass for the bus and is holding up the line when it’s raining out and my new shoes are getting wet and my hair looks like a matted ball of wet string? Maybe she had a really stressful day and left her pass at work or maybe her 2 year old son was playing with it yesterday. We don’t know.
We don’t know what others are going through in their daily lives and sometimes, I find at least, it’s better to assume that someone else might be having a worse day than me when I am feeling like everything is unfair and I am having a bad hair day.
Choosing what to pay attention to can define your day to day, week to week and year to year. Life.
What will you choose to pay attention to this week? How will you break the natural default setting of self centeredness?
Also, read this book.