Wise book - This is Water, by David Foster Wallace

The book, This is Water by David Foster Wallace is such a small book, you can literally read it in 10 minutes. Yet it contains priceless wisdom and is a literary gem. Wallace was well-known as a novelist, university professor, and philosopher.

Throughout his life, he was plagued by clinical depression, and in 2008 committed suicide. It appears that doctors were unable to come up with the right types of medications to keep Wallace out of depression, and he suffered for many years. Yet his literary output was prodigious, frequently witty, and always penetrating in its insights.

This is Water is the text of a graduation address he gave to college students, the only commencement address he ever did. It was published after his death.

I particularly appreciate Wallace’s insight into the fact that all of us have what he called a “default position”–the universal human impulse to place ourselves at the center of the universe. He calls for us to step out of our default positions of self-absorption and into the shoes of others, to see the world through others’ eyes, and to consider what dreams might be possible when seen from a wider perspective.

The wisdom in this tiny book has a tragic edge to it when one considers that the author had such great thoughts within him, and yet fell victim to his own inner darkness through no fault of his own. This book shows that often the deepest insights come from suffering. Though Wallace could not save himself, this small book shines as a beacon of light to all who seek to go beyond the “default position” to a larger more enlightened life.

A beautiful book–one that I will always treasure.

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