We see the
world as we are not as it really is. We continuously look for reinforcement around us. Anything that supports what we think, right or
wrong.
Open our minds to the possibilities we do not see, they are endless.
A Fish Story, sort of.
“There are
these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish
swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys, how's the
water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit,
and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the
hell is water?”
If at this moment, you're worried that I plan to present myself here as
the wise old fish
explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don't be. I am not the wise
old fish. The immediate point of the fish story is
that the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that
are the hardest to see and talk about. Stated as an English sentence, of
course, this is just a banal platitude — but the fact is that, in the
day-to-day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have life-or-death
importance. That may sound like hyperbole or abstract nonsense.
A huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it
turns out, totally wrong and deluded. Here's one example of the utter wrongness
of something I tend to be automatically sure of: Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that
I am the absolute center of the universe, the most real, most
vivid and important person in existence. We rarely talk about this sort of
natural, basic self-centeredness, because
it's so socially repulsive, but it's pretty much the same for all of us, deep
down. It is our default-setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth. Think
about it: There is no experience you've had that you were not at the absolute
center of. The world as you experience it is right there in front of you, or
behind you, to the left or right of you, on your TV, or your monitor, or
whatever. Other people's thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you
somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real — you get the idea. But
please don't worry that I'm getting ready to preach to you about compassion or
other-directedness or the so-called “virtues.” This is not a matter of virtue —
it's a matter of my choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free
of my natural, hard-wired default-setting, which is to be deeply and literally
self-centered, and to see and interpret everything through this lens of self.
People who can adjust their natural default-setting this way are often
described as being “well adjusted,” which I suggest to you is not an accidental
term.”
I took this
from a speech called this is water. If you have
not heard it or read it, take the time. David Foster Wallace on Life and Work.
No comments:
Post a Comment