To Stay Conscious and Alive, Day In and Day Out
After a particularly long, dull, blah mom/woman/wife/person day, Keenan shared this video with me. A commencement address by David Foster Wallace, clipped into its key messages and made into a short film. It's spread like wildfire and I now know why.
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 is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive, day in and day out.
It turned everything upside down, for the better. This may be the best way you spend nine minutes today.
Thank you, David Foster Wallace. Reading these words stings of tragedy since the world lost you, but we'll remember your sage advice in the dullest, or hardest, or happiest times, and say to ourselves, This is water, This is water.
P.S. — I also featured this video and quote on Design Mom today. The comments remind me how similar we all really are.
