I once again read David Foster Wallace‘s This is Water on the first day of the year. Here is some of the thinking that came up for me.
The obvious can be valuable, at times perhaps even profoundly important. In the everyday busyness of life however, the obvious can fade into the background of your mind.
It becomes harder to see. Of course, (and to point out the obvious) just because something is easier to miss does not diminish its actual importance.
Here are a few observations.
- You have thoughts all the time. Like weather of the mind, you experience thinking whether you do anything about that or not.
- The thoughts you have, the perspectives you take, can shape your experiences.
- You can choose to think differently.
- Different perspectives can lead to different experiences.
These are simple truths that are easy to overlook.
When you remember that you can, then you are able to choose how to think about something, what perspective(s) to take. This is not only true during moments of high stakes, but also during the everyday, the ordinary.
It is easy to miss, because you are thinking either way (in what David Foster Wallace referred to as the default setting) and choosing is an easy thing to not do. But it can be profound in the possibilities that it enables for you.
Hence of course the importance of pointing out the obvious, to remind the fish of the opening parable this is water – to remind yourself see what is in front of you, to choose.