Point of View and Relativity: This is Water

In "This is Water", by David Foster Wallace, he talks about how most people think in their "natural default-setting" and this is how they "experience the boring, frustrating, crowded parts of adult life," (Wallace 236). This default setting is the natural way people experience the world. Nobody can have anybody else's experiences, so automatically, people think in a self-centered way. Wallace talks on the point that you can learn to think a different way and change your perspective on the same situations. This could be very beneficially to a lot of people. Instead of having to do things and just getting it done, you could learn to think a different way, and maybe you will look at is as an opportunity to do something special or new. Wallace also talked about relativity. He told a fable about a wise fish asking two younger fish and the younger fish swim away and says, "What the hell is water?" (Wallace 233). This brings up a good conversation on relativity. Everyone's experiences are different and they are shaped by those experiences. Just like the fish don't know what water is because they can't look at the world from an unbiased viewpoint, and they can only see from their perspective, people don't know what others are going through. This fable should be able to show the readers to look at the world from a different, more selfless point of view. By doing this, the world could become more compassionate and empathetic, making everyone's lives easier.