"This is Water" - Fantastic Speech On Education and Compassion

The man speaking, David Foster Wallace, is known as the greatest literary talent of the last generation. (although the critics seem to fail constantly at grasping why)

He was known for this partly because he brought compassion and sincerity back into post-modern literature which at the time heading in the direction of relentless irony.

He never said anything about UFOs or the Illuminati, but he understood television, culture and people better than any other person you've read. He understood what it means to "love" in the deepest spiritual sense, but he presented this spirituality in a way that completely avoided the cliches and imagery associated with spirituality, the stuff that usually makes it so "weird" and niche' like.

He was also teacher who taught writing, and at his students' graduation he gave this speech.

I think it's a speech pretty much everybody should listen to as they enter adult life, but I think it's also a worthy thing to put here, on ATS, because one thing we like to argue about is the way society fails to teach our children compassion.

It also it serves as a good introduction to the man David Foster Wallace himself, whose work is challenging to read at times, but ultimately satisfying, rewarding, entertaining and most importantly - mind growing (well to me, at least.)

Excellent commencement speech!

Frankly, I am encouraged that some one in the higher education community realizes that while it is profitable and fulfilling to simply cheer-lead for the graduating students - that act falls short of the intent to make sure that these young would-be professional are elevated from the flotsam of vicissitudes and realize that their world which til now was all about "them" is no longer... the new world is about how you live and use what you know for the benefit of everyone - in some way.