
An early American photographer named Edward Weston once said, “I see no reason for recording the obvious.”  In David Foster Wallace’s speech to Kenyon College’s graduating class of 2005, Weston’s opinion is challenged.  Foster Wallace opens his speech with an anecdote about two young fish who do not know what water is.  He quickly explains that the purpose of the anecdote is to present the fact that the most obvious realities are often harder to talk about and observe than those which may be less obvious.  The rest of Foster Wallace’s speech focuses heavily upon the fact that people often do not take the time to put themselves in others’ shoes.  This prefaces the theme for the rest of his speech: empathy. Throughout “This is Water,” David Foster Wallace encourages readers to broaden the ways that they think about the lives of other people.   

A key factor in being empathetic is the ability to be insightful.  Though two people may hold completely different viewpoints, it is still important for each person to respect what the other says and believes.  Foster Wallace demonstrates the importance of insight by telling an anecdote about two men at a bar. One of the men, who is religious, finds it hard to see why the other man, who is an Atheist, does not believe in the existence of God.  The Atheist man presents the religious man with a story about how when he was stuck in a blizzard, he prayed to God but the only thing that saved him was “a couple of Eskimos [who] happened to come wandering by and showed the way back to camp” (Wallace 11).  Foster Wallace goes on to explain how “the exact same experience can mean two totally different things to two different people,” (Wallace 11) which provides an explanation as to why the religious man saw the Eskimos as a sign of God whereas the Atheist man did not make anything of their sudden appearance.  This leads into Foster Wallace’s discussion about individual beliefs.   He suggests that “because we prize tolerance and diversity of belief, nowhere in our liberal arts analysis do we want to claim that one guy's interpretation is true and the other guy's is false or bad,” (Wallace 11) meaning that in order for tolerance and diversity of belief to occur, insight is necessary.  This applies not only to religion, but to everything from politics to favorite sports teams.  Because people are entitled to believe what they want, two people may not see eye to eye on any given topic. Everybody believes different things, which is why it is especially important to respect the opinions and beliefs of others.  

Something that stuck out after Foster Wallace presented the anecdote about the men in the bar was the word “arrogance”.  He suggested that religious people have a certain amount of arrogance that comes with their certainty of their interpretations, but arrogance may not necessarily be the best word that he could have used.  Instead, the word “pride” could also have served just as effectively.  People who are proud of something may sometimes come off as arrogant, but the word “arrogant” has a negative connotation.  There is a noticeable difference between being arrogant and being proud.  For example, an athlete can take pride in the sport that he or she plays without being arrogant about it.  However, too much pride can easily turn into arrogance. Those who are arrogant will often seem annoying, but those who are truly proud of something tend to seem more genuine and inviting. 

It can be easy to judge somebody based off of a first impression or a brief interaction, but Foster Wallace emphasizes the importance of considering what is going on in someone else’s life before judging him or her too harshly. He uses the example of a cranky grocery store woman, stating that before getting angry about someone being short-tempered, it should be taken into consideration what he or she could be going through. Though it may seem extreme, he asks listeners to consider that “maybe [the grocery clerk] had been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer,” (Wallace 15) which would certainly explain her crankiness. He says that though that is unlikely, it is a good reminder that people do not know what is happening in the lives of others and to judge them for a small amount of interaction would be wrong. The empathy that Foster Wallace touches upon in this section encourages readers to take the time to understand that even if someone is having a bad day, there will always be someone else who is having a worse day, and remembering that is key.

Throughout his speech, David Foster Wallace emphasizes the importance of understanding more than just one’s self. He outlines the significance of being able to accept another’s opinions and beliefs, though they may not align with those which are commonly held.  Nobody should be judged for believing in what they do, because everybody has a story or situation that may not be known about.  Foster Wallace explains that even though it may be hard, others should not be judged harshly based upon first impressions and small interactions.  Two people may take the very same situation and find complete opposite meaning in it.  David Foster Wallace does not lecture his audience; he teaches them that the next time they begin to judge a person, they should first step back and consider anything and everything that could be happening in that person’s life. 