This is an interesting video based on a commencement speech by David Foster Wallace. I haven't ever read anything by him, and frankly I have always had some inherent reticence to read him. I guess I have the image of him as too navel-gazing, and certainly verbose with his multi-hundred-page books, though now I'd like to give his writing a chance.
This speech does a good job of pointing out the noble aspects of boring, everyday life, especially as lived in the US where cars and supermarkets and all the other trappings of our version of consumerist modernity can easily deaden human feeling and sympathy. It is interesting that such insight and wisdom and love for life comes from a man who ultimately couldn't bear to keep living. I will try to keep in mind the teachings of this video as my wife and I settle into a new life in the US this year. I hope I can be a decent person amidst even some of the more boring, soul-crushing aspects of everyday life (while at the same time striving to really change some of those aspects for the better).
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