David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech, “This Is Water”, was written and presented for the purpose of enlightening the students and families present at a 2005 graduation from a Liberal Arts school, on the value of a Liberal Arts degree. Through his speech, Wallace looks to share his thoughts on how to open up and look at the world differently by using what he refers to as “little parable-ish stories” (Wallace x). After going through his relatable stories, Wallace then turns around and analyzes them with a more open mind. He also uses the word worship in different contexts to define his idea of our “natural default setting” (Wallace xii). Wallace also uses capital letters to emphasize how people can be oblivious to others, only focusing on themselves. Wallace’s analysis of his own stories that tie together and connect with his definitions of the word worship, along with the emphasis he puts on the words your and my with capital letters encourages listeners to see through mundane tasks and come to the realization that being more present in the world is a skill that was earned and needs to be practiced by a liberal arts degree. 

Wallace recognises that the use of stories in commencement speeches is usually required to keep the audience's attention. When he presents his stories, such as the fish, the story about the atheist and the schedule of a mundane day in the life of an adult Wallace goes back through his stories, attempting to make the point that “the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about” (Wallace xvi). After he presents his supermarket/freeway story he explains that it is our natural default setting to think in such a boring and negative way, putting ourselves not only first, but in a higher position than those around us. Reversing back through his parable, starting with his experience with SUV drivers on the freeway, Wallace explains deeper, but simplistic, meanings for the things that tend to tick off the average adult in their average day. This way of seeing everyday events in a new light seems very simplistic and easy to do, and yet because of the natural default setting to not be more openminded, these realizations that it's not that hard to look a little deeper into things, and not see yourself on a pedestal compared to others. Wallace shows here that it's you that gets to decide how to see things and what to “worship.”

Wallace uses the word worship to further his definition of the natural default setting, worshipping anything can lead to an obsession, and self worship can slip into our lives so easily, just contributing more to the inability to stop acting like we are the center of the universe.  Wallace ties together the usage of the word worship with his short story about the atheist and the christian, and how they see things in different ways, but negates the existence of atheism, saying “there's no such thing as not worshipping” (Wallace xvi). The unconscious ability to worship things is so unbelievably similar to our natural default setting, and the language that Wallace uses to describe this, repeating what you can worship and then how it will be your downfall, is just like how he previously told his story about how we think, and then when back and negated everything and showed that there is more to every story. Wallace talks about how he is so frustrated and bored in the checkout line, and then goes back and says how he could realize that everyone else is too, just like how he says “worship power” and returns to this and negates it saying, “you will end up feeling weak and afraid” (Wallace xvi). These ways of speaking and writing are Wallace's way of teaching that you have to “understanding how to think”, in order to overcome natural default settings. 

Wallace's capitalization of the words your and my before and after his supermarket story. Beginning his story with the capitalization of YOUR, Wallace places emphasis on how when we are born we believe that we are the center of the universe, it's all about you. He uses the word “your” here, as opposed to the word “my”, before he talks about the natural default setting, making an emphasis that it's literally hardwired into your mind that you are the first priority. During his supermarket story he capitalizes the word my saying, “MY hungriness, MY fatigue, MY desire to just get home” (Wallace xiv), he is emphasizing that we are choosing to only see our own problems, and not others. By using this language and being so blunt almost to the point where he goes too far, Wallace proves his point that we can sometimes only see our own problems, instead of also being aware of other peoples. This ties into his usage of the word worship as well, showing that self-worship can be so second nature to us that sometimes we don't see it that way until it is screaming at us in the face, ie the capitalization. 

Wallace’s analysis of his own stories that tie together and connect with his definitions of the word worship, along with the emphasis he puts on the words your and my with capital letters encourages listeners to see through mundane tasks and come to the realization that being more present in the world is a skill that was earned and needs to be practiced by a liberal arts degree. This is all tied together to form Wallace's point that self worship is the exact same thing as the natural default setting. He makes the point that “the capital T Truth is about life BEFORE DEATH...everything to do with simple awareness” (Wallace xvii), being aware of more than ourselves. His blunt language is meant to make an impact and prove a point, and while his stories are entertaining, the way that Wallace goes back through them and analyzes them ties together his whole idea about natural default setting, and what students should look to get out of their degree. 