
Do animals in a zoo know they are locked up in cages for people to look at? Do humans think constantly about the air they breathe? Do birds know that they are flying in the sky while everyone else commutes by walking? David Wallace asks if fish know that they live and breathe water. This metaphor relates whether humans notice other things around them. Wallace wrote “This is Water,” to explain that many people lack awareness. He does this by explaining that people think they are always right, they think they are the center of the universe, explains what a default setting is, that people need to control what and how they think, and that people need to change how they see things. 

In David Wallace’s “This is Water,” Wallace explains that people who lack awareness always think that they are right. People think that they are always doing things right and that they never need help. When people are stubborn and think that they know what they are doing, they are usually wrong. Lacking awareness may lead to wrong solutions. A solution could have easily been solved if stubbornness wasn’t an issue and help was accepted. People just want to look like they have everything handled themselves and never want to ask for help. They think that asking for help shows weakness but if they are aware that everyone needs help with something then they could understand that help is a simple thing to ask for. Wallace uses honesty and makes a connection to people to show that everyone makes mistakes and everyone needs help. He also says that people do not have awareness so having awareness would be showing that mistakes can be made and everyone makes them.

Wallace also says that people lack awareness because they are caught up in their own universe. Wallace says, “the world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to the left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor (Wallace XII),” meaning that you are the center of YOUR universe. That you are only aware of what is in your universe. He also says that we do not accept that we are self-centered because it is just socially repulsive, but if we could gain self-awareness then we wouldn’t have to think like this. Since everything we experience is in our own life, we believe that we are the center of everything. If we could gain awareness in our lives and realize that we aren’t just living in our own worlds but of others around us too then we could be more open to things around us. 

When we are born we are automatically in control, we are automatically the center of everything around us. Right when we are born we already have the thought of self-centeredness. Wallace says, “it is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth” (Wallace XII). Wallace repeatedly uses “default setting.” Our default setting is how we live and what we think of everything else around us. Many people have a default setting of thinking the world revolves around them and they are the center of the universe. Wallace also says that people who can adjust their default setting are also know as “well adjusted,” meaning they can change their viewpoints and can be more understanding. Do we become well-adjusted just from learning and knowledge or do we gain it from personal experience? Or do we just gain it from awareness? Awareness would allow us to be more understanding of what is going on around us, or being well-adjusted. Wallace references having a “default setting” repeatedly to help you recognize what he means and what it means to be able to change it or have awareness of it. 

Can an education or having knowledge of how and what you think actually help you gain more awareness? Or would it make you overthink or even not think at all about issues around you? Having an education can make people over analyze situations. It can also make people completely unaware of what other people are going through around them because they are so caught up in only things they have knowledge about. Having awareness of education or gaining knowledge would allow a person to understand how to control what and how they think. A person that is able to control what they think would allow them to have more awareness of what’s in their brain, allowing them to have more understanding that they are not the center of the universe. 

People always have an idea in their mind that they have everything worse than everyone else. Their day was worse, their family has more issues, or their job is more stressful. While people may think this all the time, it is not always the case. Most of the time others around us have more problems than we do. We usually ignore that thought and immediately think we deserve better. Wallace uses an example that people in driving may be really bad drivers but they could also be driving their kid to the hospital. Or while you may think that they’re driving that enormous SUV just to pollute the environment, they could be driving it because they were in a really bad car accident and they cannot drive in lower cars. Sometimes these excuses aren’t true but if you walk around thinking that you have it worse than everyone else, you would be completely unaware and not well adjusted. Wallace refers back to the natural default setting to explain that people will automatically think this. He gives us these examples of thinking selfish because we can all relate so it makes it easier for us to understand. 

Fish probably don’t think about the fact that they swimming and breathing water. Just like we don’t about being selfish or about others around us. David Wallace wrote “This is Water,” to show that many people don’t have awareness in their day to day lives. He uses examples and metaphors to show this. Wallace uses an example of walking through a grocery store to show that many people around you probably have it worse. He also says that driving on a highway opens up the ideas that people are selfish and only think about themselves. Wallace stresses that you should be the person that is aware and well adjusted. He shows this by explaining that we think that what we do and think we are always right, that we think that we are the center of the universe, he explains what a default setting is, he says that we should control how and what we think, and that we need to change how we see things. 