This has been floating (pun mostly unintended) around the internet for a couple weeks now, but this short film featuring highlights of the late David Foster Wallace's commencement address to Kenyon College graduates in 2005 earns all the plaudits it's received.
By trimming Wallace's original speech of more than 20 minutes down by more than half, and marrying it to some excellent visuals, both real-life and animated, The Glossary have created 9 minutes that is certainly worth your time and worth the time of your kid-graduates. Maybe not your preschooler or kindergartener, but as long as you (or, more importantly, your child) can handle a couple salty words they probably hear on network TV anyways, Wallace's speech says important things about attitude, empathy, and learning that folks moving on to junior high, high school, college, or just a new coffee mug should hear.
David Foster Wallace - "This Is Water" (film by The Glossary) [Vimeo]
