This is Water

This is Water

By David(ˈdāvid) Foster(ˈfäs-,ˈfôstər) Wallace(ˈwôləs)

Greetings(ˈɡrēdiNG) parents and congratulations(-ˌgrajə-,kənˌgraCHəˈlāSHən) to Kenyon’s graduating(ˈɡraj(ə)wət) class of 2005. There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods(näd) at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell(hel) is water?”

This is a standard requirement of US commencement(kəˈmensmənt) speeches(spēCH), the deployment of didactic(dīˈdaktik) little parable(ˈparəbəl)-ish stories. The story thing turns out to be one of the better, less bullshitty(bo͝olˈSHidē) conventions of the genre(ˈZHänrə), but if you’re worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise(wīz), older fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don’t be. I am not the wise old fish. The point of the fish story is merely(ˈmi(ə)rlē) that the most obvious, important realities(rēˈalədē) are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. Stated(ˈstādəd) as an English sentence(ˈsentns), of course, this is just a banal(-ˈnäl,bəˈnal,ˈbānl) platitude(ˈpladəˌt(y)o͞od), but the fact is that in the day to day trenches(trenCH) of adult(əˈdəlt,ˈadˌəlt) existence(igˈzistəns), banal platitudes can have a life or death importance, or so I wish to suggest to you on this dry and lovely morning.

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https://fs.blog/2012/04/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/