David Foster Wallace on Getting a Good Education
Courtesy of Bill, here is a university commencement address by David Foster Wallace. He makes a very sound argument for the value of the liberal arts education:
This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well-adjusted. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. You get to decide what to worship.
It’s a bit high-minded in places, but I like his self-effacing tone and thebelieve in the central thesis of his talk.
In particular, I was interested in his thoughts on everyday activities as a kind of worship. I was speaking to somebody recently on the subject, and they pointed out that my blogging on a near daily basis is ritualistic. That, like religion or spirituality, blogging can be a search for the self or for greater meaning. This, of course, was an aspect of Julie Leung’s talk at Northern Voice and Gnomedex.
