I just listened to “This is Water,” the commencement speech that David Foster Wallace delivered to Kenyon College, the class of 2005. I didn’t know what it would be, and I didn’t feel that I connected with every word, but it was pretty great. Of course it was; it was David Foster Wallace. You can listen to it here, if you are so inclined. If you would rather just read it, I found a transcript as well.
He spends a bit of time on what freedom really is, and then he says something that I’ve been turning over in my mind. It’s such a great quote, I decided I would share it here. As a belated Independence Day offering.
“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.”
― David Foster Wallace, This is Water