Have you ever learnt a new word, and then soon after started seeing it everywhere?
I feel that way about the author, David Foster Wallace. I’m surprised I only learnt about him this year, but since then, he’s appeared in blogs, speeches, and in conversations with friends; all referencing the man and his wisdom.
I loved this short story from his book ‘This is Water’.
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. How’s 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?”
Wallace goes on to say, “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.”
In other words, the timeless ideas for what make a good life are often hidden in plain sight, and we don’t often talk about them because they sound like banal platitudes. I’ve touched on this subject before in ‘Take the stairs, eat more veggies’.
It’s also tempting—when writing and posting each day—to always be on the hunt for fresh, undiscovered ideas to share. But this story is a reminder that it’s perhaps more important to relearn, reflect, and practise the simple, timeless ideas for living.