Raven McCarter - Response to DFW Speech

At the beginning, for the most part I found this speech to be redundant to almost everything you're told from the moment the thought processing part of you're brain has fully developed-and bit before then as well; be kind to others, walk a mile in another man's shoes before you cast judgement, optimism is key, have the right attitude! All noble paths to follow and live by. To have sympathy and understanding for your fellow being is surely a great virtue to bestow upon the world and of course, we all know that these aren't truths that many live by, we all acknowledge and come face to face with the immoral and the sad reality of the world everyday. It's a reality of life that we're forced to believe cannot be changed. 

But this isn't the part of the speech that I find compelling, infact it's probably the very end of the speech that caught me the most; It is about simple awareness - awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, that we have to keep reminding ourselves, over and over: "This is water, this is water."

It was up to this point where I believed that regardless of how much Wallace claimed his speech wasn't about morality, that I thought it actually was. It was at this point where I had to agree with this man that I had internally been rolling my eyes at because he is right; you give everything around you it's own meaning. THIS IS WATER. You are swimming around in you own universe of meaning, ideas, hurt, pain, love and excitement. You are the creator, the actor, the audience and the critic. You are the creator of action, the sculptor of your story.  We are all the judge and jury of our own universe, walking alongside one another as we go through an existence of thoughts, feelings and ideas that can never truly be understood by anyone on the outside. We are all the center while at the same time being nothing but a drops in an endless ocean of realities and experiences. All so different but also so alike. An existence that can either be toiled with monotony and stoicism or enlivened with vivid life, with emotion, activism and creation.

 And quite honestly as an artist, as a realist,  I find that idea to be absolutely thrilling.