David Foster Wallace’s 2005 Keyon College commencement speech made the rounds a few years ago, never more intensely than after his death in 2008. As a guy in his mid–40s who reflects on what he has and hasn’t learned over the years, I find commencement speeches interesting and hopeful – little spoken placards of life wisdom by luminescent minds I almost certainly didn’t know when I graduated from college, but am happy to recognize now, some 20 years later. Better late than never.
Also let it be known that David Foster Wallace (or DFW, as the literary nerds denote him) is tops among my favorite authors. There are very few writers who ignite a passion for words and writing the way DFW does within me, and I find his writing invigorating, exciting, like a cold splash of water to the face on a hot day.
If you haven’t read his Kenyon College speech, which he gave in 2005, the entire transcript is here. Please believe me when I say it’s worth your time to read, and, if you’re obsessive-compulsive like me, print out several times and leave lying around your house in random locations, like rat-traps against the daily frustration and stress of adulthood we all have to manage.
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