Stop to think

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I had forgotten This Is Water.

Not forgotten, really, as forgotten to remind myself. And this forgetting, in itself, is problematic since one theme of the speech’s text (and the book rendered from that speech) is choosing to be aware enough to remind yourself about the many intersecting realities informing what is otherwise boring, frustrating, or irritating in our lives.

Thanks to AdWeek for catching the video created by The Glossary.

Watch this. Please. This is not just water. This is humanity, this is life, this is truth. This is the answer to my question, posted here all too often, about how to make it through.

This is living rather than surviving.

And this is one of a dozen reasons I so adore David Foster Wallace’s art, writing, perspective, and contribution to our generation’s struggle with what it means to be alive.

8 thoughts on “Stop to think”

  1. My husband sent me this yesterday but I haven’t watched it yet. Looks like I know what I am doing this afternoon…a little naptime viewing. Can’t wait.

    • I read the text and listened to the audio in 2005 when it made the rounds. And adored it. But the new twist The Glossary has put on it is quite impressive.
      Enjoy. It’s his most approachable piece, and is still filled with the heart and frustration and complex reasoning that makes all his writing, to me, luminous.

      • I loved the piece, but also struggled, because it’s different from Wallace’s original speech. It definitely caught the gist, but part of me hates that it took a YouTube video to perhaps have it reach more ears… But maybe I shouldn’t be a snob, you know? … And thus was my waffling.

        • Agreed. To cut…what, half an hour?…to ten minutes definitely truncates some of the force behind the original. Abridged is always terrible. But millions are watching it. And that’s always good.

          Doesn’t shock me that Americans need video to make Wallace palatable. Depresses, but doesn’t shock me.

    • I loved the original audio that Little Brown asked to be taken down. And I thought of buying the book, but it slipped my mind.

      This video is just lovely.
      (I do, wish, though, that the images of rush hour had more cars in them. Doesn’t seem traffic-y enough for my taste.)

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