This is Water 这就是水
——David Foster Wallace 大卫·福斯特·华莱士

• [00:04.16]Greetings, thanks
• [00:05.30]and congratulations
• [00:06.05]to Kenyon's graduating class of 2005.
• [00:11.03]There are these two young fish
• [00:12.28]swimming along
• [00:13.76]and they happen to meet an older fish
• [00:15.42]swimming the other way,
• [00:16.69]who nods at them and says
• [00:17.67]Morning, boys. How's the water
• [00:20.99]And the two young fish
• [00:21.85]swim on for a bit,
• [00:23.07]and then eventually
• [00:24.28]one of them looks over
• [00:25.17]at the other and goes
• [00:26.21]What the hell is water
• [00:29.95]This is a standard requirement
• [00:31.47]of US commencement speeches,
• [00:32.86]the deployment of didactic
• [00:34.75]little parable-ish stories.
• [00:37.56]The story thing turns out to be
• [00:38.71]one of the better,
• [00:39.78]less bullshitty conventions of the genre,
• [00:42.59]but if you're worried
• [00:43.18]that I plan to present myself here
• [00:44.33]as the wise,
• [00:45.23]older fish explaining
• [00:46.59]what water is to you younger fish,
• [00:49.09]please don't be.
• [00:50.54]I am not the wise old fish.
• [00:53.30]The point of the fish story
• [00:54.35]is merely that the most obvious,
• [00:55.83]important realities
• [00:56.88]are often the ones
• [00:57.78]that are hardest to see
• [00:58.96]and talk about.
• [01:00.49]Stated as an English sentence,
• [01:02.07]of course,
• [01:02.79]this is just a banal platitude,
• [01:05.30]but the fact is that
• [01:06.08]in the day to day trenches
• [01:07.73]of adult existence,
• [01:08.91]banal platitudes
• [01:09.89]can have a life or death importance,
• [01:12.33]or so I wish to suggest to you
• [01:13.95]on this dry and lovely morning.
• [01:17.07]Of course
• [01:17.56]the main requirement
• [01:18.40]of speeches like this is
• [01:19.46]that I'm supposed
• [01:20.52]to talk about your liberal
• [01:22.04]arts education's meaning,
• [01:23.81]to try to explain
• [01:24.81]why the degree you are
• [01:25.80]about to receive
• [01:26.58]has actual human value
• [01:28.40]instead of just a material payoff.
• [01:31.98]So let's talk about
• [01:32.72]the single most pervasive cliché
• [01:34.27]in the commencement speech genre,
• [01:36.43]which is that a liberal arts education
• [01:38.36]is not so much about
• [01:39.54]filling you up with knowledge
• [01:40.97]As It Is about
• [01:42.71]"teaching you how to think".
• [01:45.61]If you're like me as a student,
• [01:47.30]you've never liked hearing this,
• [01:49.12]and you tend to feel a bit insulted
• [01:50.72]by the claim that you needed
• [01:52.02]anybody to teach you
• [01:52.78]how to think,
• [01:53.91]since the fact that you even
• [01:54.88]got admitted to a college this good
• [01:56.48]seems like proof that
• [01:57.50]you already know how to think.
• [02:01.89]But I'm going to posit to you
• [02:03.00]that the liberal arts cliché
• [02:04.25]turns out not to
• [02:05.17]be insulting at all,
• [02:06.71]because the really
• [02:07.56]significant education
• [02:08.51]in thinking that we're supposed
• [02:09.88]to get in a place like this
• [02:11.09]isn't really about
• [02:12.42]the capacity to think,
• [02:14.25]but rather about the choice
• [02:15.49]of what to think about.
• [02:17.83]If your total freedom
• [02:18.64]of choice regarding
• [02:19.62]what to think about seems
• [02:20.64]too obvious to waste time discussing,
• [02:22.90]I'd ask you to think
• [02:23.96]about fish and water,
• [02:25.41]and to bracket for just
• [02:26.65]a few minutes your skepticism
• [02:28.47]about the value of the totally obvious.
• [02:33.09]Here's another didactic little story.
• [02:35.25]There are these two guys
• [02:36.14]sitting together in a bar
• [02:37.33]in the remote Alaskan wilderness.
• [02:39.35]One of the guys is religious,
• [02:40.86]the other is an atheist,
• [02:42.62]and the two are arguing
• [02:43.89]about the existence of God
• [02:45.20]with that special intensity
• [02:46.54]that comes after about the fourth beer.
• [02:49.62]And the atheist says:
• [02:50.69]Look, it's not like
• [02:51.50]I don't have actual reasons
• [02:52.94]for not believing in God.
• [02:54.56]It's not like
• [02:55.44]I haven't ever experimented
• [02:56.52]with the whole God
• [02:57.51]and prayer thing.
• [02:58.68]Just last month
• [02:59.74]I got caught away from the camp
• [03:01.14]in that terrible blizzard,
• [03:02.71]and I was totally lost
• [03:04.02]and I couldn't see a thing,
• [03:05.39]and it was 50 below,
• [03:06.88]and so I tried it
• [03:08.13]I fell to my knees in the snow
• [03:09.48]and CRIed out
• [03:10.22]Oh, God, if there is a God,
• [03:11.85]I'm lost in this blizzard,
• [03:13.18]and I'm gonna die
• [03:13.99]if you don't help me.
• [03:15.98]And now,
• [03:16.56]in the bar,
• [03:17.41]the religious guy looks at the atheist
• [03:18.99]all puzzled.
• [03:20.42]Well then you must believe now,
• [03:21.81]he says,
• [03:22.67]After all, here you are, alive.
• [03:25.78]The atheist just rolls his eyes.
• [03:27.84]No, man,
• [03:28.64]all that was a couple Eskimos
• [03:30.37]happened to come wandering by
• [03:31.64]and showed me the way back to camp.
• [03:35.02]It's easy to run this story
• [03:36.34]through kind of
• [03:36.97]a standard liberal arts analysis
• [03:39.43]the exact same experience
• [03:40.76]can mean two totally different things
• [03:42.58]to two different people,
• [03:44.00]given those people's two different belief
• [03:45.72]templates and two different ways
• [03:47.32]of constructing meaning
• [03:48.52]from experience.
• [03:50.35]Because we prize tolerance
• [03:51.90]and diversity of belief,
• [03:53.84]nowhere in our liberal arts analysis
• [03:55.97]do we want to claim
• [03:56.53]that one guy's interpretation
• [03:57.75]is true and the other guy's is false or bad.
• [04:02.13]Which is fine,
• [04:03.04]except we also never end up
• [04:04.30]talking about just
• [04:05.72]where these individual templates
• [04:06.90]and beliefs come from.
• [04:08.42]Meaning, where they come from
• [04:09.60]INSIDE the two guys.
• [04:11.58]As if a person's most basic orientation
• [04:14.14]toward the world,
• [04:15.17]and the meaning of his experience
• [04:16.74]were somehow just hard-wired,
• [04:18.53]like height or shoe-size;
• [04:20.44]or automatically absorbed
• [04:22.12]from the culture,
• [04:23.09]like language.
• [04:24.76]As if how we construct meaning
• [04:26.15]were not actually a matter of personal,
• [04:28.07]intentional choice.
• [04:36.61]Plus, there's the whole matter
• [04:37.65]of arrogance.
• [04:38.75]The nonreligious guy
• [04:39.74]is so totally certain
• [04:41.33]in his dismissal of the possibility
• [04:43.05]that the passing Eskimos
• [04:44.27]had anything to do
• [04:45.56]with his prayer for help.
• [04:47.76]True, there are plenty of religious people
• [04:49.77]who seem arrogant
• [04:50.64]and certain of their own interpretations too.
• [04:53.30]They're probably even
• [04:54.88]more repulsive than atheists,
• [04:56.70]at least to most of us.
• [04:59.12]But religious dogmatists' problem
• [05:00.64]is exactly the same
• [05:01.83]as the story's unbeliever
• [05:03.60]blind certainty,
• [05:05.54]a close-mindedness
• [05:06.63]that amounts to an imprisonment
• [05:07.95]so total that the prisoner
• [05:09.31]doesn't even know he's locked up.
• [05:12.47]The point here is that
• [05:13.79]I think this is one part
• [05:15.05]of what teaching me
• [05:16.34]how to think is really
• [05:17.67]supposed to mean.
• [05:19.05]To be just a little less arrogant.
• [05:21.33]To have just a little CRItical awareness
• [05:23.67]about myself
• [05:24.28]and my certainties.
• [05:25.85]Because a huge percentage
• [05:27.09]of the stuff that I tend
• [05:28.52]to be automatically certain of is,
• [05:29.82]it turns out,
• [05:31.35]totally wrong and deluded.
• [05:34.53]I have learned this the hard way,
• [05:36.64]as I predict you graduates will, too.
• [05:39.54]Here is just one example
• [05:40.63]of the total wrongness
• [05:41.91]of something I tend
• [05:42.76]to be automatically sure of
• [05:44.86]everything in my own immediate experience
• [05:47.23]supports my deep belief
• [05:48.52]that I am the absolute centre
• [05:50.30]of the universe;
• [05:52.81]the realest, most vivid
• [05:54.24]and important person in existence.
• [05:56.81]We rarely talk about
• [05:58.15]this sort of natural,
• [05:59.13]basic self-centeredness
• [06:00.50]because it's so socially repulsive.
• [06:02.88]But it's pretty much the same
• [06:03.87]for all of us.
• [06:05.61]It is our default setting,
• [06:07.59]hard-wired into our boards at birth.
• [06:09.82]Think about it:
• [06:11.85]there is no experience
• [06:13.02]you have had
• [06:14.25]that you are not the absolute centre of.
• [06:16.50]The world as you experience
• [06:18.59]it is there in front of YOU
• [06:20.29]or behind YOU,
• [06:21.61]to the left or right of YOU,
• [06:23.49]on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor.
• [06:26.16]And so on.
• [06:27.57]Other people's thoughts
• [06:28.50]and feelings have to be communicated
• [06:30.07]to you somehow,
• [06:31.24]but your own are so immediate, urgent, real.
• [06:35.79]Please don't worry that
• [06:37.51]I'm getting ready
• [06:38.29]to lecture you
• [06:39.11]about compassion
• [06:39.66]or other-directedness
• [06:40.81]or all the so-called virtues.
• [06:42.89]This is not a matter of virtue.
• [06:44.53]It's a matter of my choosing
• [06:46.24]to do the work of somehow
• [06:47.84]altering or getting free of my natural,
• [06:50.15]hard-wired default setting
• [06:52.07]which is to be deeply
• [06:53.11]and literally self-centered
• [06:55.38]and to see and interpret everything
• [06:57.20]through this lens of self.
• [07:00.23]People who can adjust
• [07:01.34]their natural default setting this way
• [07:02.50]are often desCRIbed as being
• [07:04.10]well-adjusted
• [07:05.92]which I suggest to you
• [07:06.95]is not an accidental term.
• [07:09.18]Given the triumphant
• [07:11.09]academic setting here
• [07:12.56]an obvious question is
• [07:14.18]how much of this work
• [07:15.04]of adjusting our default setting involves
• [07:16.90]actual knowledge or intellect.
• [07:19.23]This question gets very tricky.
• [07:22.15]Probably the most dangerous thing
• [07:23.41]about an academic education
• [07:24.73]at least in my own case
• [07:26.90]is that it enables my tendency
• [07:28.48]to over-intellectualise stuff,
• [07:30.94]to get lost in abstract argument
• [07:32.82]inside my head,
• [07:34.21]instead of simply paying attention
• [07:35.58]to what is going on right
• [07:36.95]in front of me,
• [07:38.26]paying attention to
• [07:39.68]what is going on inside me.
• [07:41.98]As I'm sure
• [07:43.15]you guys know by now,
• [07:44.51]it is extremely difficult
• [07:45.79]to stay alert and attentive,
• [07:47.87]instead of getting hypnotised
• [07:49.25]by the constant monologue
• [07:50.57]inside your own head
• [07:52.17](may be happening right now).
• [07:54.48]Twenty years after my own graduation,
• [07:56.62]I have come gradually
• [07:57.58]to understand
• [07:58.41]that the liberal arts cliché
• [07:59.68]about teaching you
• [08:00.87]how to think is actually shorthand
• [08:02.81]for a much deeper,
• [08:03.98]more serious idea:
• [08:05.91]learning how to think really
• [08:07.47]means learning how to exercise
• [08:08.89]some control over how
• [08:10.44]and what you think.
• [08:12.54]It means being conscious
• [08:13.81]and aware enough to choose
• [08:15.33]what you pay attention to
• [08:16.66]and to choose how you construct meaning
• [08:18.99]from experience.
• [08:20.97]Because if you cannot exercise
• [08:22.69]this kind of choice in adult life,
• [08:24.39]you will be totally hosed.
• [08:27.08]Think of the old cliché
• [08:28.52]about "the mind being an excellent servant
• [08:31.46]but a terrible master".
• [08:33.25]This, like many clichés,
• [08:35.35]so lame and unexciting
• [08:37.47]on the surface,
• [08:38.23]actually expresses a great
• [08:39.65]and terrible truth.
• [08:41.77]It is not the least bit coincidental
• [08:43.49]that adults who commit suicide
• [08:45.14]with firearms almost always
• [08:46.72]shoot themselves in the head.
• [08:50.31]They shoot the terrible master.
• [08:53.11]And the truth is that most of
• [08:54.38]these suicides are actually dead
• [08:55.88]long before they pull the trigger.
• [08:58.33]And I submit that this is
• [08:59.93]what the real,
• [09:01.03]no bullshit value of your liberal arts
• [09:02.19]education is supposed to be about
• [09:05.24]how to keep from going
• [09:06.51]through your comfortable,
• [09:07.62]prosperous,
• [09:08.27]respectable adult life dead,
• [09:11.53]unconscious,
• [09:13.13]a slave to your head
• [09:14.50]and to your natural default setting
• [09:16.25]of being uniquely,
• [09:17.39]completely,
• [09:18.47]imperially alone
• [09:20.65]day in and day out.
• [09:24.77]That may sound like hyperbole,
• [09:26.29]or abstract nonsense.
• [09:28.84]Let's get concrete.
• [09:30.26]The plain fact
• [09:31.25]is that you graduating seniors
• [09:32.62]do not yet have any clue what
• [09:33.89]"day in day out" really means.
• [09:38.82]There happen to be whole,
• [09:39.66]large parts of adult American life
• [09:41.46]that nobody talks about
• [09:42.53]in commencement speeches.
• [09:45.55]One such part involves boredom,
• [09:47.30]routine and petty frustration.
• [09:51.04]The parents and older folks here
• [09:52.58]will know all too well
• [09:53.39]what I'm talking about.
• [09:55.29]By way of example,
• [09:56.38]let's say it's an average adult day,
• [09:58.47]and you get up in the morning,
• [09:59.85]go to your challenging,
• [10:00.77]white-collar,
• [10:01.37]college-graduate job,
• [10:03.11]and you work hard for eight
• [10:04.34]or ten hours,
• [10:05.24]and at the end of the day
• [10:05.95]you're tired and somewhat stressed
• [10:07.99]and all you want is to go home
• [10:09.26]and have a good supper
• [10:10.36]and maybe unwind for an hour,
• [10:11.36]and then hit the sack early because,
• [10:13.08]of course,
• [10:14.22]you have to get up the next day
• [10:14.86]and do it all again.
• [10:16.33]But then you remember
• [10:16.99]there's no food at home.
• [10:18.67]You haven't had time
• [10:19.49]to shop this week
• [10:20.50]because of your challenging job,
• [10:22.47]and so now after work
• [10:23.99]you have to get in your car
• [10:25.21]and drive to the supermarket.
• [10:26.82]It's the end of the work day
• [10:28.55]and the traffic is apt to be
• [10:29.94]very bad.
• [10:31.45]So getting to the store
• [10:32.48]takes way longer than it should,
• [10:33.89]and when you finally get there,
• [10:36.38]the supermarket is very crowded,
• [10:37.40]because of course
• [10:38.34]it's the time of day
• [10:39.20]when all the other people
• [10:40.37]with jobs also try
• [10:41.23]to squeeze in some grocery shopping.
• [10:43.48]And the store is hideously lit
• [10:45.35]and infused with soul-killing muzak
• [10:49.06]or corporate pop
• [10:51.04]and it's pretty much the last place
• [10:52.46]you want to be
• [10:53.50]but you can't just get in
• [10:54.55]and quickly out;
• [10:55.83]you have to wander all over the huge,
• [10:57.40]over-lit store's confusing aisles
• [10:59.44]to find the stuff you want
• [11:01.31]and you have to manoeuvre your junky
• [11:02.68]cart through all these other tired,
• [11:04.35]hurried people with carts
• [11:07.34]et cetera, et cetera,
• [11:08.41]cutting stuff out
• [11:09.19]because this is a long ceremony
• [11:10.14]and eventually
• [11:12.60]you get all your supper supplies,
• [11:14.12]except now it turns out
• [11:15.17]there aren't enough
• [11:15.96]check-out lanes open
• [11:16.81]even though
• [11:17.75]it's the end-of-the-day rush.
• [11:19.04]So the checkout line is incredibly long,
• [11:20.98]which is stupid and infuriating.
• [11:22.97]But you can't take your frustration out
• [11:25.55]on the frantic lady working the register,
• [11:27.37]who is overworked
• [11:28.88]at a job whose daily tedium
• [11:30.33]and meaninglessness surpasses the imagination
• [11:32.38]of any of us here at a prestigious college.
• [11:35.32]But anyway,
• [11:36.54]you finally get to
• [11:37.40]the checkout line's front,
• [11:38.26]and you pay for your food,
• [11:39.99]and you get told to
• [11:41.37]Have a nice day
• [11:42.84]in a voice that is
• [11:43.71]the absolute voice of death.
• [11:46.61]Then you have to take your creepy,
• [11:47.84]flimsy, plastic bags of groceries
• [11:49.37]in your cart with the one crazy wheel
• [11:51.75]that pulls maddeningly to the left,
• [11:53.39]all the way out through the crowded,
• [11:55.69]bumpy, littery parking lot,
• [11:57.57]and then you have to drive
• [11:58.76]all the way home through
• [11:59.82]slow, heavy, SUV-intensive,
• [12:01.35]rush-hour traffic,
• [12:02.82]et cetera et cetera.
• [12:05.08]Everyone here has done this,
• [12:06.28]of course.
• [12:07.25]But it hasn't yet been part
• [12:08.22]of you graduates' actual life routine,
• [12:10.66]day after week after month after year.
• [12:14.36]But it will be.
• [12:16.97]And many more dreary,
• [12:18.12]annoying, seemingly
• [12:19.40]meaningless routines besides.
• [12:22.26]But that is not the point.
• [12:23.59]The point is that petty,
• [12:24.57]frustrating crap
• [12:25.73]like this is exactly
• [12:26.85]where the work of choosing
• [12:28.62]is gonna come in.
• [12:30.29]Because the traffic jams
• [12:31.42]and crowded aisles
• [12:32.59]and long checkout lines
• [12:33.95]give me time to think,
• [12:35.87]and if I don't make a conscious decision
• [12:37.54]about how to think
• [12:38.66]and what to pay attention to,
• [12:40.14]I'm gonna be pissed
• [12:41.26]and miserable every time
• [12:42.82]I have to shop.
• [12:44.39]Because my natural default setting
• [12:46.07]is the certainty that situations
• [12:47.68]like this are really all about me.
• [12:50.47]About MY hungriness
• [12:51.53]and MY fatigue
• [12:52.74]and MY desire to just get home,
• [12:54.87]and it's going to seem
• [12:55.83]for all the world
• [12:56.85]like everybody else is just
• [12:58.28]in my way.
• [13:00.25]And who are all these people
• [13:01.59]in my way?
• [13:02.52]And look at how repulsive most
• [13:03.99]of them are,
• [13:04.97]and how stupid
• [13:05.73]and cow-like and dead-eyed
• [13:06.81]and nonhuman they seem in the checkout line,
• [13:09.39]or at how annoying
• [13:10.29]and rude it is that people
• [13:11.43]are talking loudly on cell phones
• [13:12.89]in the middle of the line.
• [13:14.50]And look at how deeply
• [13:15.47]and personally unfair this is.
• [13:19.50]Or, of course,
• [13:20.17]if I'm in a more socially conscious
• [13:21.89]liberal arts form
• [13:22.95]of my default setting,
• [13:24.02]I can spend time
• [13:25.24]in the end-of-the-day traffic
• [13:26.42]being disgusted about all the huge,
• [13:28.71]stupid,
• [13:29.24]lane-blocking SUV's
• [13:30.43]and Hummers
• [13:31.34]and V-12 pickup trucks,
• [13:33.24]burning their wasteful,
• [13:34.32]selfish, 40-gallon tanks of gas,
• [13:37.31]and I can dwell on the fact
• [13:38.43]that the patriotic
• [13:39.65]or religious bumper-stickers
• [13:40.71]always seem to be on the biggest,
• [13:42.13]most disgustingly selfish vehicles,
• [13:44.56]driven by the ugliest
• [13:52.25]this is an example
• [13:52.91]of how NOT to think,
• [13:55.85]though most disgustingly selfish vehicles,
• [13:57.72]driven by the ugliest,
• [13:58.91]most inconsiderate
• [14:00.05]and aggressive drivers.
• [14:01.62]And I can think about
• [14:02.32]how our children's children
• [14:03.51]will despise us for wasting
• [14:04.82]all the future's fuel,
• [14:06.30]and probably screwing up the climate,
• [14:07.86]and how spoiled and stupid
• [14:09.24]and selfish and disgusting we all are,
• [14:11.38]and how modern consumer society
• [14:14.06]just sucks, and so on and so forth.
• [14:16.92]You get the idea.
• [14:17.95]If I choose to think this way
• [14:19.49]in a store and on the freeway,
• [14:21.03]fine. Lots of us do.
• [14:24.97]Except thinking this way
• [14:26.18]tends to be so easy
• [14:27.30]and automatic that it doesn't
• [14:28.47]have to be a choice.
• [14:30.16]It is my natural default setting.
• [14:32.60]It's the automatic way
• [14:33.87]that I experience the boring,
• [14:35.34]frustrating, crowded parts
• [14:37.38]of adult life when I'm operating
• [14:39.43]on the automatic,
• [14:40.49]unconscious belief
• [14:41.75]that I am the centre of the world,
• [14:43.21]and that my immediate needs
• [14:44.89]and feelings are
• [14:45.86]what should determine the world's priorities.
• [14:48.03]The thing is that,
• [14:48.91]of course,
• [14:49.57]there are totally different ways
• [14:50.53]to think about these kinds of situations.
• [14:53.22]In this traffic,
• [14:54.44]all these vehicles stopped
• [14:55.96]and idling in my way,
• [14:57.68]it's not impossible
• [14:59.09]that some of these people
• [15:00.26]in SUV's have been
• [15:01.43]in horrible auto accidents
• [15:02.44]in the past,
• [15:03.41]and now find driving
• [15:04.47]so terrifying that their therapist
• [15:06.00]has all but ordered them
• [15:07.42]to get a huge, heavy SUV
• [15:09.10]so they can feel safe enough to drive.
• [15:12.19]Or that the Hummer
• [15:12.90]that just cut me off is
• [15:14.02]maybe being driven
• [15:15.10]by a father whose
• [15:16.03]little child is hurt or sick
• [15:17.55]in the seat next to him,
• [15:19.06]and he's trying to get this kid
• [15:20.13]to the hospital,
• [15:21.26]and he's in a way bigger,
• [15:22.33]more legitimate hurry
• [15:23.49]than I am
• [15:24.62]it is actually I who am in HIS way.
• [15:28.32]Or I can choose to force myself
• [15:29.79]to consider the likelihood
• [15:31.05]that everyone else
• [15:31.86]in the supermarket's checkout line
• [15:33.09]is just as bored
• [15:34.37]and frustrated as I am,
• [15:36.47]and that some of these people
• [15:37.54]probably have harder,
• [15:38.61]more tedious and painful lives than I do.
• [15:42.87]Again, please don't think
• [15:44.44]that I'm giving you moral advice,
• [15:46.26]or that I'm saying you are supposed
• [15:47.43]to think this way,
• [15:48.24]or that anyone expects you
• [15:49.24]to just automatically do it.
• [15:51.07]Because it's hard.
• [15:52.71]It takes will and effort,
• [15:54.69]and if you are like me,
• [15:55.89]some days you won't be able to do it,
• [15:58.23]or you just flat out won't want to.
• [16:00.76]But most days,
• [16:01.99]if you're aware enough
• [16:03.10]to give yourself a choice,
• [16:04.26]you can choose
• [16:05.44]to look differently at this fat,
• [16:07.06]dead-eyed, over-made-up lady
• [16:08.33]who just screamed at her kid
• [16:10.24]in the checkout line.
• [16:12.17]Maybe she's not usually like this.
• [16:14.11]Maybe she's been up
• [16:15.18]three straight nights
• [16:16.29]holding the hand of a husband
• [16:17.51]who is dying of bone cancer.
• [16:19.54]Or maybe this very lady is
• [16:20.91]the low-wage clerk
• [16:22.08]at the motor vehicle department,
• [16:23.32]who just yesterday
• [16:24.65]helped your spouse resolve a horrific,
• [16:26.43]infuriating, red-tape problem
• [16:28.60]through some small act
• [16:30.03]of bureaucratic kindness.
• [16:32.26]Of course,
• [16:32.77]none of this is likely,
• [16:33.77]but it's also not impossible.
• [16:36.21]It just depends
• [16:37.17]what you want to consider.
• [16:39.03]If you're automatically sure
• [16:40.66]that you know what reality is,
• [16:43.03]and who and what is really important,
• [16:45.32]if you wanna operating
• [16:46.33]on your default setting,
• [16:47.49]then you, like me,
• [16:49.27]probably won't consider possibilities
• [16:51.08]that aren't annoying and miserable.
• [16:54.01]But if you really learn
• [16:54.77]how to think,
• [16:56.75]how to pay attention,
• [16:58.27]then you will know
• [16:59.61]you have other options.
• [17:01.17]It will actually be within your power
• [17:03.26]to experience a crowded,
• [17:04.98]hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation
• [17:09.02]as not only meaningful,
• [17:10.40]but sacred, on fire with the same force
• [17:13.69]that made the stars
• [17:15.07]love, fellowship,
• [17:16.99]the mystical oneness
• [17:18.46]of all things deep down.
• [17:21.46]Not that that mystical stuff
• [17:22.68]is necessarily true.
• [17:23.95]The only thing
• [17:24.66]that's capital-T True
• [17:25.82]is that you get to decide
• [17:27.80]how you're gonna try to see it.
• [17:30.13]This, I submit,
• [17:31.16]is the freedom
• [17:32.33]of a real education,
• [17:33.77]of learning how to be well-adjusted.
• [17:36.19]You get to consciously decide
• [17:37.51]what has meaning
• [17:38.67]and what doesn't.
• [17:40.49]You get to decide what to worship.
• [17:43.83]Because here's something else
• [17:45.80]that's weird but true
• [17:47.69]in the day-to-day trenches
• [17:48.95]of adult life,
• [17:49.95]there is actually no such thing
• [17:51.58]as atheism.
• [17:53.14]There is no such thing
• [17:54.15]as not worshipping.
• [17:55.62]Everybody worships.
• [17:57.74]The only choice we get
• [17:58.85]is what to worship.
• [18:01.03]And the compelling reason
• [18:02.30]for maybe choosing some sort
• [18:03.92]of god or spiritual-type thing
• [18:05.73]to worship
• [18:07.14]be it JC or Allah,
• [18:08.57]be it YHWH
• [18:09.65]or the Wiccan Mother Goddess,
• [18:11.11]or the Four Noble Truths,
• [18:12.28]or some inviolable set of ethical principles
• [18:15.11]is that pretty much anything else
• [18:16.48]you worship will eat you alive.
• [18:19.51]If you worship money and things,
• [18:21.70]if they are where you tap
• [18:22.91]real meaning in life,
• [18:24.54]then you will never have enough,
• [18:26.45]never feel you have enough.
• [18:28.45]It's the truth.
• [18:30.07]Worship your own body
• [18:31.13]and beauty and sexual allure
• [18:32.81]and you will always feel ugly.
• [18:35.04]And when time and age start showing,
• [18:36.88]you will die a million deaths
• [18:38.66]before they finally grieve you.
• [18:41.09]On one level,
• [18:42.05]we all know this stuff already.
• [18:43.37]It's been codified as myths,
• [18:45.25]proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables;
• [18:49.41]the skeleton of every great story.
• [18:52.69]The whole trick is keeping
• [18:54.26]the truth up front in daily consciousness.
• [18:57.55]Worship power,
• [18:58.81]you will end up feeling weak
• [19:00.29]and afraid,
• [19:01.50]and you will need
• [19:02.26]ever more power
• [19:02.91]over others to numb you
• [19:04.39]to your own fear.
• [19:06.00]Worship your intellect,
• [19:07.47]being seen as smart,
• [19:08.63]you will end up feeling stupid,
• [19:10.76]a fraud, always on the verge
• [19:12.95]of being found out.
• [19:15.81]Look the insidious thing
• [19:16.87]about these forms of worship
• [19:17.88]is not that they're evil or sinful,
• [19:19.75]it's that they're unconscious.
• [19:22.14]They are default settings.
• [19:24.28]They're the kind of worship you
• [19:25.28]just gradually slip into,
• [19:27.06]day after day,
• [19:28.17]getting more and more selective
• [19:29.58]about what you see
• [19:30.64]and how you measure value
• [19:31.95]without ever being fully aware
• [19:33.37]that that's what you're doing.
• [19:35.65]And the so-called real world
• [19:37.21]will not discourage you
• [19:38.58]from operating on your default settings,
• [19:40.52]because the so-called real world
• [19:42.48]of men and money
• [19:44.15]and power hums merrily
• [19:45.93]along on feel of fear
• [19:47.80]and anger and frustration
• [19:49.06]and craving and worship of self.
• [19:51.93]Our own present culture has harnessed
• [19:53.66]these forces in ways
• [19:54.87]that have yielded extraordinary
• [19:56.14]wealth and comfort
• [19:57.55]and personal freedom.
• [19:59.93]The freedom all to be lords
• [20:01.25]of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms,
• [20:03.82]alone at the centre of all creation.
• [20:06.55]This kind of freedom
• [20:08.18]has much to recommend it.
• [20:10.40]But of course there are
• [20:11.41]all different kinds of freedom,
• [20:13.23]and the kind that is most precious
• [20:14.66]you will not hear much talk about
• [20:16.32]much in the great outside world
• [20:18.10]of wanting and achieving and displaying.
• [20:21.58]The really important kind
• [20:22.64]of freedom involves attention
• [20:25.07]and awareness and discipline,
• [20:28.00]and being able truly
• [20:29.07]to care about other people
• [20:30.29]and to sacrifice for them
• [20:31.95]over and over in myriad petty,
• [20:34.53]unsexy ways every day.
• [20:37.57]That is real freedom.
• [20:39.44]That is being educated,
• [20:41.46]and understanding how to think.
• [20:44.14]The alternative is unconsciousness,
• [20:46.46]the default setting,
• [20:47.83]the rat race,
• [20:49.25]the constant gnawing sense
• [20:51.04]of having had,
• [20:52.05]and lost,
• [20:53.06]some infinite thing.
• [20:56.19]I know that this stuff
• [20:57.01]probably doesn't sound fun
• [20:58.07]and breezy or grandly inspirational
• [21:00.14]the way a commencement speech
• [21:01.46]is supposed to sound.
• [21:03.13]What it is,
• [21:03.95]as far as I can see,
• [21:05.06]is the capital-T Truth,
• [21:06.52]with a whole lot
• [21:07.89]of rhetorical niceties stripped away.
• [21:09.82]You are, of course,
• [21:10.98]free to think of it whatever you wish.
• [21:14.21]But please don't just dismiss it
• [21:15.79]as just some finger-wagging
• [21:17.05]Dr Laura sermon.
• [21:18.42]None of this stuff is really
• [21:20.29]about morality or religion
• [21:22.42]or dogma or big fancy questions
• [21:24.85]of life after death.
• [21:26.57]The capital-T Truth
• [21:27.48]is about life BEFORE death.
• [21:30.97]It is about the real value
• [21:32.13]of a real education,
• [21:33.90]which has almost nothing
• [21:35.07]to do with knowledge,
• [21:36.13]and everything to do with simple awareness
• [21:40.12]awareness of what is so real and essential,
• [21:42.55]so hidden in plain sight
• [21:44.53]all around us,
• [21:45.49]all the time,
• [21:46.60]that we have to keep reminding ourselves
• [21:48.22]over and over:
• [21:49.83]This is water.
• [21:51.87]This is water.
• [21:55.25]It is unimaginably hard
• [21:56.68]to do this,
• [21:57.89]to stay conscious
• [21:58.80]and alive in the adult world
• [22:00.63]day in and day out.
• [22:02.77]Which means yet another grand cliché
• [22:04.90]turns out to be true
• [22:06.36]your education really
• [22:07.57]IS the job of a lifetime.
• [22:10.10]And it commences: now.
• [22:13.29]I wish you way more than luck.