Darren Meade, This is Water?

I’ve often thought that if I could bring one person back to life to spend a day with them (or better yet, go back in time to spend a day with them) it would be Abraham Lincoln or Richard Feynman.

But very close on their heels would be David Foster Wallace.

His famous commencement speech, “This is Water,” which he delivered at Kenyon College on May 21, 2005, is one I’ve listened to countless times. However, I realized this week, as I listened to it again, that only in the past two months have I finally started to understand what he’s really saying.

Whether you’ve listened to this before or not, I’d encourage you to do so again today, ideally with your eyes closed. If it doesn’t resonate with you, come back to it in 6 months. It took many events in my life, and many years, for this to finally sink in.

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My name is Darren M. Meade. This is my story.

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