這就是水

By David Foster Wallace

在這篇演講中，美國知名小說家華萊士以兩條小魚的對話，頗具禪意地開啟了眾人對于和諧共存的思考。日常煩惱和人際摩擦，無不源于自以為是或以自我為中心，而要時刻對此保持清醒，又是不可想象地難。所以一個人能否通過教育獲得內心的自由與幸福往往取決于三種能力：自我調整、正確覺知和富有同情心。對此華萊士傳授了一個簡單便利的法則，即“學會換位思考、體諒他人難處”，而這也正是美國大學通識教育的核心。

The 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address1

Greetings and congratulations to Kenyons graduating class of 2005.

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. Hows 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？”

This is a standard requirement of US commencement speeches， the deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories.2 If youre worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise， older fish explaining what water is to you younger fish， please dont be. I am not the wise old fish. The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious， important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.

Of course the main requirement of speeches like this is that Im supposed to talk about your liberal arts educations3 meaning， which is that a liberal arts education is not so much about filling you up with knowledge as it is about “teaching you how to think.”

By way of example， lets say its an average adult day， and you get up in the morning， go to your challenging job， and you work hard for nine or ten hours， and at the end of the day youre tired and somewhat stressed out and all you want is to go home and have a good supper. But then you remember theres no food at home. You have to get in your car and drive to the supermarket. Its the end of the work day and the traffic is apt to be very bad. So getting to the store takes way longer than it should， and when you finally get there， the supermarket is very crowded. You have to wander all over the huge， over-lit stores confusing aisles to find the stuff you want and you have to maneuver your junky cart through all these other tired，4 hurried people with carts and eventually you get all your supper supplies， except now it turns out there arent enough check-out lanes open even though its the end-of-the-day rush. So the checkout line is incredibly long， which is stupid and infuriating5. But you cant take your frustration out on the frantic lady working the register， who is overworked at a job whose daily tedium and meaninglessness surpasses the imagination of any of us here at a prestigious college.6

Anyway， you finally get to the checkout lines front， and you pay for your food， and you get told to “Have a nice day” in a voice that is the absolute voice of death. Then you have to take your creepy， flimsy， plastic bags of groceries in your cart all the way out through the crowded， bumpy， littery parking lot， and then you have to drive all the way home through slow，heavy， SUV-intensive， rushhour traffic， etc.7

Everyone here has done this， of course. But it hasnt yet been part of you graduates actual life routine， day after week after month after year. But it will be. And many more dreary8， annoying， seemingly meaningless routines besides. But that is not the point. The point is that the traffic jams and crowded aisles and long checkout lines give me time to think， and if I dont make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to， Im gonna be pissed9 and miserable every time I have to shop.

And who are all these people in my way？ And look at how repulsive10 most of them are， and how stupid and cow-like and dead-eyed and nonhuman they seem in the checkout line， or at how annoying and rude it is that people are talking loudly on cell phones in the middle of the line. It is my natural default setting11. Its the automatic way that I experience the boring， frustrating， crowded parts of adult life when Im operating on the automatic， unconscious belief that I am the center of the world， and that my immediate needs and feelings are what should determine the worlds priorities.

Of course， there are totally different ways to think about these kinds of situations. In that traffic， all those vehicles stuck and idling in my way， its not impossible that some of these people in SUVs have been in horrible auto accidents in the past， and now find driving so traumatic that their therapist has all but ordered them to get a huge，12 heavy SUV so they can feel safe enough to drive. Or that the Hummer that just cut me off is maybe being driven by a father whose little child is hurt or sick in the seat next to him， and hes trying to rush to the hospital， and hes in a bigger， more legitimate hurry than I am：13 it is actually I who am in his way.

Or you can choose to consider the likelihood that everyone else in the supermarkets checkout line is just as bored and frustrated as you are， and that some of these people probably have harder， more tedious and painful lives than you do. Or you can choose to look differently at this fat， dead-eyed， over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe shes not usually like this. Maybe shes been up three straight nights holding the hand of her husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low wage clerk at the motor vehicle department， who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific， infuriating， red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness.14 Of course， none of this is likely， but its also not impossible.

The only thing thats true is that you get to decide how youre gonna try to see it. This is the freedom of a real education， of learning how to be well-adjusted. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesnt.

What it is， as far as I can see， is the capital-T Truth. It is about life before death. It is about the real value of a real education， which has almost nothing to do with knowledge， and everything to do with simple awareness； awareness of what is so real and essential， so hidden in plain sight all around us， all the time， that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over：“This is water.”

1. Kenyon： 凱尼恩學院，美國私立文理學院，創建于1 8 2 4年，坐落于俄亥俄州甘比爾；commencement： 畢業典禮。

2. deployment： 使用，運用；didactic：教誨的，（尤指）道德說教的；parable-ish： 類似寓言故事的，是作者造的一個詞，parable是寓言的意思。

3. liberal arts education：通識教育，也稱博雅教育，強調涉獵多種多樣的學科，是美國大學倡導的教學方式。

4. aisle： （超市貨架之間的）過道；maneuver：巧妙地移動（大而沉的物件）；junky： 品質低劣的，蹩腳的；cart：手推車。

5. infuriating： 令人發怒的。

6. frantic： 忙亂的；tedium：單調，乏味。

7. flimsy： 劣質的，不結實的；bumpy： 不平的，顛簸的；SUV： Sports Utility Vehicle，運動型多用途車；intensive： 密集的，以……居多的。

8. dreary： 沉悶的，枯燥的。

9. pissed： 憤怒的。

10. repulsive： 令人反感的，十分討厭的。

11. default setting： 默認設置，即理所當然。

12. idle：（發動機）空轉，未熄火；traumatic： 痛苦的，極不愉快的。

13. Hummer： 悍馬，美國通用汽車推出的一個品牌，已停產，曾因其優異的機動性和越野性，被冠以“越野之王”的美譽；cut sb. off： 打斷，這里指插隊；legitimate： 正當合理的。

14. 或許這位女士剛好是汽車門店的一名低薪員工，昨天剛剛做了個人情，幫你愛人搞定了一個惱人又繁瑣的問題。horrific： 極差的，令人不愉快的；red-tape： 繁文縟節的，官樣文章的；bureaucratic： 官僚主義的。