Greetings, thanks 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?”
What the hell is water?
What the hell is water?
This is a standard requirement of US commencement speeches
The deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories
The story thing turns out to be one of the better
Less bullshitty conventions of the genre
But 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
Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude
But the fact is that in the day to day trenches of adult existence
Banal platitudes can have a life or death importance
Or so I wish to suggest to you on this dry and lovely morning
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?”
What the hell is water?
What the hell is water?
This is a standard requirement of US commencement speeches
The deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories
The story thing turns out to be one of the better
Less bullshitty conventions of the genre
But 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
Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude
But the fact is that in the day to day trenches of adult existence
Banal platitudes can have a life or death importance
Or so I wish to suggest to you on this dry and lovely morning
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