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在這篇演讲中，美国知名小说家华莱士以两条小鱼的对话，颇具禅意地开启了众人对于和谐共存的思考。日常烦恼和人际摩擦，无不源于自以为是或以自我为中心，而要时刻对此保持清醒，又是不可想象地难。所以一个人能否通过教育获得内心的自由与幸福往往取决于三种能力：自我调整、正确觉知和富有同情心。对此华莱士传授了一个简单便利的法则，即“学会换位思考、体谅他人难处”，而这也正是美国大学通识教育的核心。
The 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address1
Greetings and congratulations to Kenyon’s graduating class of 2005.
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？”
This is a standard requirement of US commencement speeches， the deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories.2 If you’re worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise， older fish explaining what water is to you younger fish， please don’t be. I am not the wise old fish. 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.
Of course the main requirement of speeches like this is that I’m supposed to talk about your liberal arts education’s3 meaning， which is that a liberal arts education is not so much about filling you up with knowledge as it is about “teaching you how to think.”
By way of example， let’s say it’s an average adult day， and you get up in the morning， go to your challenging job， and you work hard for nine or ten hours， and at the end of the day you’re tired and somewhat stressed out and all you want is to go home and have a good supper. But then you remember there’s no food at home. You have to get in your car and drive to the supermarket. It’s the end of the work day and the traffic is apt to be very bad. So getting to the store takes way longer than it should， and when you finally get there， the supermarket is very crowded. You have to wander all over the huge， over-lit store’s confusing aisles to find the stuff you want and you have to maneuver your junky cart through all these other tired，4 hurried people with carts and eventually you get all your supper supplies， except now it turns out there aren’t enough check-out lanes open even though it’s the end-of-the-day rush. So the checkout line is incredibly long， which is stupid and infuriating5. But you can’t take your frustration out on the frantic lady working the register， who is overworked at a job whose daily tedium and meaninglessness surpasses the imagination of any of us here at a prestigious college.6
The 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address1
Greetings and congratulations to Kenyon’s graduating class of 2005.
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？”
This is a standard requirement of US commencement speeches， the deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories.2 If you’re worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise， older fish explaining what water is to you younger fish， please don’t be. I am not the wise old fish. 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.
Of course the main requirement of speeches like this is that I’m supposed to talk about your liberal arts education’s3 meaning， which is that a liberal arts education is not so much about filling you up with knowledge as it is about “teaching you how to think.”
By way of example， let’s say it’s an average adult day， and you get up in the morning， go to your challenging job， and you work hard for nine or ten hours， and at the end of the day you’re tired and somewhat stressed out and all you want is to go home and have a good supper. But then you remember there’s no food at home. You have to get in your car and drive to the supermarket. It’s the end of the work day and the traffic is apt to be very bad. So getting to the store takes way longer than it should， and when you finally get there， the supermarket is very crowded. You have to wander all over the huge， over-lit store’s confusing aisles to find the stuff you want and you have to maneuver your junky cart through all these other tired，4 hurried people with carts and eventually you get all your supper supplies， except now it turns out there aren’t enough check-out lanes open even though it’s the end-of-the-day rush. So the checkout line is incredibly long， which is stupid and infuriating5. But you can’t take your frustration out on the frantic lady working the register， who is overworked at a job whose daily tedium and meaninglessness surpasses the imagination of any of us here at a prestigious college.6