Journal (#3)
Journal (#3): Take a look at your notes and distill some of your thoughts into something a little like 2 paragraphs-6-10 sentences each. Post on your ePort AND post on our course site in the designated spot. This is how you earn credit. (60 min.)
12 thoughts on “Journal (#3)”
“This is Water” by David Foster Wallace was a speech given to the graduation class of 2005. Rather than giving a boring speech like a “regular” principal would David Foster made an inspiration speech about knowledge, emotions and learning. Mr. Foster talks about the most obvious things in life are usually the hardest to see no matter what situation. I feel like with most things I make it much harder than it is and never look at the big picture. I am one to also complicate everything.
Mr. Foster also talked about the blind certainty. Mr. Foster says that the blind certainty is having a prisoner in a jail cell and not knowing what is going on and why they are there. Blind certainty is not knowing what you are doing and not realizing what is going on. Something that he talked about was learning to think deeper than what you believe. Which is hard to think about when a human is wired to be simple, but we are all creative in our own ways.
In David Wallace’s 2005 commencement speech, “This is Water” he discusses blind certainty and a person’s default settings. When discussing the topic of blind certainty, he brings up an example of an atheist and a religious man. They’re both sitting at a bar discussing the topic of god. The atheist was recently stuck in a blizzard and cried out to God for help, after that a group of eskimo’s came by to help him. The religious man interprets the situation as God helping him out of a dangerous situation, but the atheist sees it as a coincidence. Both men are certain about their opinion that they don’t open up their mind to new possibilities.
One’s default settings make them believe they’re the center of their own universe and they’re blind to other people’s problems. To think differently one needs to learn to change their default settings. Wallace explains to us that when we are in a supermarket and a woman is yelling at her kids she may not act like that all time, but maybe her husband is suffering from cancer at the moment, or when a car cuts you off on the road a father could be trying to quickly get his child in the passenger seat to the hospital. He wanted to exhibit the different ways people’s default settings work, so instead of thinking how it’s inconvenience, he wants us to think of the possible theory that someone may have it worse than we do.
Lets say that one day you were going to work and this giant SUV cuts you off in traffic in New York City. What would your first respond be? I would honk that horn and be infuriated for the rest of the day just thinking, “What was their problem.” But lets say that person had a dog who was dying of cancer and needs treatment quick, well, now you feel like the bad guy. What This is Water tries to convey is how unconsciously we think in our day-to-day lives without being aware of others around us. Just a simple wave hello, only to be greeted by a, “Fuck off,” could lead to discouragement unless you look at the circumstances around you and consider them before making that judgement to feel discourage. That same person could’ve just lost a love one and was placing flowers on their grave and didn’t want to be interrupted. But if we are not aware, there will be no care for what reason they had to say that and will leave discouragement.
Now that doesn’t mean what you’ve been thinking from these encounters are wrong, nor that you should be thinking in the way This is Water describes a perfect mindset. What should be taken away is the bigger picture. That there is, “Freedom which involves attention, and awareness, and disciple, and effort, and being able to truly care about others and to sacrifice for them.” This is your choice of how your life is lived and being able to use these freedoms. But we still get reminded of those freedoms because despite being right in front of us, we don’t always look at this as a freedom and hide that in the back of our mind. We decide to use the default-setting that is implanted into us when looking around at our surrounding. Now you are left with the choice, so what will you choose?
Journal 3
While watching this video I felt more open towards the world more than usual. Wallace kind of interest me with the points he was covering. Besides his very large vocabulary he did end up making a lot of sense. Especially when he touches on the topic about seeing the world from different views. I always had a sense of seeing the bigger picture in life due to just being curious. However, when Wallace brought it up it was more so him just reminding me and me basically connecting with him because I had this mindset before.
What also interest me throughout this video was when Wallace talks about value and choices. He explains how if you value money and fame more you will never feel fulfilled in life and when you value your body too much eventually over time you will feel ugly. Which I disagree with, I love my body and value it very much and I feel as though it don’t matter how old I get I will always value my body. Now far as money wise, I agree with Wallace because money only brings temporary happiness for me. Overall, in life you get choices, this topic stood out the most to me because I refused to live a life that people expect me to live unless it’s life I choose.
In the speech written by David Wallace rather than making the same old boring speech and talking so highly of a graduating class he fills the speech with pointers and fills the kids minds with knowledge. When he states, “ the most obvious is most hard to see” I find this very useful due to the fact that we as people think that the most obvious is a trick and that we will then venture off and try to think harder and make the most obvious harder than it actually is to the human eye and thought. Another idea that I thought that was important was the idea of “you need to have will to look past your own view to see the whole picture” I thought that this was important because rather than sitting and keeping your mind and ideas to yourself you might not get the whole idea you might get only part of it because your mind is closed off to only think that you are right and no one else is.
Another main topic that I had thought was important was when it says, “You choose what you think about and how much you stay focused.” I thought that this was important because this is true about almost everyone. A person thinks how much or how little they want and they have the right to choose whether they stay focused or whether they focus and then if they get distracted. Its all based on personal choice and I think that David Wallaces essay was to explain how life is all of your own ideas and own thoughts and choices.
In David Foster Wallace speech “ This is water” David talks about how you choose your life and what your future is. He wants to emphasize that everything that you choose in life is going to affect your everyday life into what you will become as an adult. His whole philosophy of his speech is the meaning we construct out of life is a matter of personal, intentional choice. It’s a conscious decision but you have to choose what to pay attention to and how you build meaning from that experience. What we learn in school is taugth as how to think but what they really mean is how to exercise control in the things you do or say.
He also talks about the topic of blind certainty. He talks about how to men sitting at a bar persceive one situation as two different things. Wallace then says how one thing in any situations can mean 2 different things to 2 different people because of their beliefs whether its religion or just an opinion.We belive in alot of what we were taught that we don’t even realize they can be questioned whether it is arrogance, blind certainty, a closed-mindedness that you feel like a prisoner that doesn’t even know he’s locked up. I feel that this relates to when he referenced that most people that do feel imprisoned though are the ones who commit suicide and they are usually dead before that trigger is pulled.
In David Foster Wallace speech “ This is water” David talks about how you choose your life and what your future is. He wants to emphasize that everything that you choose in life is going to affect your everyday life into what you will become as an adult. His whole philosophy of his speech is the meaning we construct out of life is a matter of personal, intentional choice. It’s a conscious decision but you have to choose what to pay attention to and how you build meaning from that experience. What we learn in school is taugth as how to think but what they really mean is how to exercise control in the things you do or say.
He also talks about the topic of blind certainty. He talks about how to men sitting at a bar persceive one situation as two different things. Wallace then says how one thing in any situations can mean 2 different things to 2 different people because of their beliefs whether its religion or just an opinion.We belive in alot of what we were taught that we don’t even realize they can be questioned whether it is arrogance, blind certainty, a closed-mindedness that you feel like a prisoner that doesn’t even know he’s locked up. I feel that this relates to when he referenced that most people that do feel imprisoned though are the ones who commit suicide and they are usually dead before that trigger is pulled.
9-9-18
From reading “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace he made the normal commencement speech into something that would be eye opening for people. While reading one of the things that stood out to me was the idea of that the most obvious things are the hardest ones to see. I can relate to this because it has happened to me. I took things for granted and wanted so much more but everything i wanted was right in front of me. Instead of opening my eyes I created tunnel vision and didn’t look at the bigger picture that was screaming my name.
When Wallace said that us as humans always think we are right even when we are so wrong. I loved this because we do it all the time. We can say a statement thinking we are one hundred percent right and somehow be so wrong. But we don’t ever stop to think that maybe we don’t know everything. The thought of being wrong is something that we hate to think about so we just think that we know everything and it has become such a habit. Sometime being right all the time isn’t the best thing but we need to learn that being wrong is okay and that is how we are going to learn.
Default settings is something that is mentions a lot through the end of his speech. Going into default setting is almost doing something without even having to think about it. We become unaware of our surroundings and don’t even stop to think about what we are doing or who we are crossing paths with. We could walk by thousands of people everyday and not even look up or make eye contact because we decide we want to be zombies for the day. Getting out of that mindset and being self aware could be a powerful thing because someone could be having the same bad day but instead of just being a zombie maybe you smile and change their mood as well.
Although not everything was a main idea there was a lot that was said that I agreed with.
One sentence or thought of his that i really could connect with was that we think we are the center of everything we do but we really aren’t. Yes we tell stories and go through our daily lives and everything we tell or do is from our perspective. That makes it our story or our day but what we dont tell or see is the one hundred other things that are going on around us. There could be a big event or a proposal that we completely miss because we are all about ourselves. Getting out of that mindset and just enjoying nature and people could open your eyes to a whole world that has been sitting there in the obvious but of course those things are the hardest to see.
This next idea is something i struggle with everyday. That is not wanting to do the hardest things and just settling for the easier route. This could come across a lot of ways but to me its saying yes this is hard for me to do but you never know what could come out of doing that hard thing. It could be oh i was having a bad day well i’m still going to keep my spirits up. Just by having that mentality you could keep you head up, have a smile and say hi to people. You never know maybe you meet one of your best friends in the future or just brighten up someone else’s day. Just because something is easier doesnt mean its the right way.
Lastly, his concept of freedom was a way i never thought of it as. When I think of freedom i automatically think of our flag. Which is not wrong but his way of explaining it was freedom was just being aware. You are attentive and open not distracted and grumpy. You see what’s real and understand what you have and don’t take anything for granted. That is the highest point of our freedom. When you are not weighed down by anything and you can be completely honest with yourself and others. You can be open without any fear of how others will react. Having that completely free feeling could just make life as a whole so exhilarating and I mean who wouldn’t want that.
While reading and listening to this speech, I frequently came back to myself to help myself understand what he was saying. I really like this speech and in turn have made mental notes for my own in the future. A main idea I got from this and really agreed with was, the world as we see it is revolving around us. We are the center of our own universes, and we have the power to choose how and what we think about. The hard part is breaking through that default-setting we were naturally born with, of thinking that our immediate needs are what should shape the world’s decisions. We should try to think about why that person is acting up, or cutting you off in traffic when dealing with boring, stressful situations, instead of reverting back to complaining about how everyone is in your way.
Another important idea I got out of this speech was that optimism is the key to a happy life. When you do not always think negatively about certain things, you are open to new possibilities or ideas. Doing this will allow you to then think new thoughts and in ways you’ve never thought about before. Choosing to worship a set of beliefs or morals, is much better of than your default setting of worshipping money, or power, or anything else will eat you alive. Today, more than ever we see people worshipping the wrong things, followers, power, money, likes, etc., so it is very difficult to break the bad default setting when it surrounds you. Break the cycle of going through everyday using the default setting, think for yourself.
Alex Case
September 10, 2018
In the commencement speech “This is Water” by David Foster, it is not considered your normal commencement speech. The main thing that I took out of this speech and the focus point I found was that important realities are sometimes most often hard to talk about or see. This idea consider that most of us are close minded unaware of how imprisoned we are to the ideas and events that continually shape us. Everything we do in life, everywhere we go we all witness something different or in a different perspective.
This speech he really tries to emphasize that when you go off into the real world you really need to assert yourself. When you look at your education it leads you down your own path on how you go about things. It also says that your education is beyond school and is a “lifelong process.” Education is beyond schooling a into everything around you can teach you something.
Franco Abbatessa
In This Is Water the speech has many main ideas. Such as there are always going to be hard times. Another one is that life is what you make of it and also that a high school diploma means nothing. Another one is that you have to believe in order to be successful. Also is that everyone has their own idea of looking at the world and it is what you make of it. The big one is that everyone can be wrong and that nothing’s perfect. Most people put themselves before others. These main ideas help you figure out what the speaker is talking about the point he is trying to get across to the listeners. Another points in this speech were what to agree with. Such as only you can decide what you want and only you can achieve it if you really work at it.
These points to agree with is that everyone looks at the world differently, just like my brother looks at the world a lot differently than me. Everyone has a place and purpose in this world and the path you decided to take will make your life the way you want it to go or not. The point that no one realizes is that it’s okay to be wrong and no ones perfect. The understanding of the world is difficult the way that you perceive the world is how the world will look for the rest of your life, which is not true at all. Don’t let society turn you into something your not because societies biggest downfall is that it conforms people into being and doing stuff that they don’t want to do or necessarily need in their lives. The last one is that you make the world into what you want it to be and only you can change it or make it better.
What to think
The idea of what to think and where to think is the main idea that Mr.Wallace are trying to inculcate us. However i found The idea so abstract. We cant just use the word ‘think’ to conclude describe or explain this theory. He also trying to tell us what role do i play to view this world? what perspective do i stand?
I totally agree with the importance of the necessarity to have this thought in my head. Like what he mentioned during speech. The person who have the thought of, If everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute centre of the universe, and im the absolute centre of the universes, he is gonna die miserable and painfully. Cause this thought will lead him to have a so selfish construct of mind set. It will lead you think all the long check out line in grocery strore are stupid and infuriating long and, after you pay your food you will get hold ‘ to have a nice day” in a voice of dead, and you have to drive all the way home through slow, heavy,suv intensive,rush hour traffic . Then you start to think everyone is in you way, because your nature default setting will automatically shift the way you think, you will only care about you fatigue,your hungriness and your desire to just get home. Then one day you will find everything in this world are against you,and you will think you are the most tragic person in this world and you will find gun and pull the trigger to your head- the “bad master”. However if you find our other person in this world ,in this grocery story,in this check out line are just as miserable as your are, some of them are just better at acting. Suddenly you wont find the world is against you, and you wont have the power to pull the trigger. This is what our–bad master– can do,determine the life and death.
The only thought that have challenge me is his determine of true freedom. I believe in this big “confused” world, there is no such a thing as–” the one”. Each every one of us determine freedom happiness in a different way. It is hard for us to not worship money or power, since this whole sociaty and even your family already being selective about how they measure value. Greedy, wanted to be respect and to be proud,our nature default setting, its in deep inside each single one of us. Pursuing money and power It is not a worship for people, its a goal a dream for people to seek and to keep them going, and to taste being “alive”.