Kenyan Commencement Speech

Meaning and main idea of Kenyan Commencement Speech
Every time winding up at the crossroads of the life, we are making a choice that then defines the development and consequences of all subsequent life events. In this regard, the tricky thing is that careful consideration of the problem has not always guaranteed the best decisions, because it depends on what justice an individual warships: autocentric self or the universal one. Therein, as David Wallace says in his speech “pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive” (Wallace). In this essay on the example of Matt Fowler, character from Andre Dubus’s “Killings”, I will argue that the response by default, which is the response that seems majority of people the most righteous one,
He claims that only by doing so, people would have an opportunity to see the world in all its colors and shades. Therefore, in his opinion, the deepest and most serious idea of learning is “not learning to think”, but “learning how to think” (Wallace). Futhermore, he claims that if the young minds would not exercise this learning of how to think, they will end up by losing the freedom of creative and independent thinking to the deadened stereotypes and stupefied clichés, imposed by intrinsic to human nature vanity, arrogance and permissiveness. During the speech, Wallace keeps his word about not being “a wise old fish” that knows “what water is”, so his speech is full of “self-incriminating confessions” and instructive short stories. He explains the deep and philosophical view on the life on the examples from mundane life. However, his point is that these everyday activities are the life itself, so every thought and decision or action matter. Hence, even the smallest step in the life leads either to success and happiness or regrets and pain. In the regard to reasons of suicides, Wallace mentions the proverb about mind is being a terrible master, which eloquently confirms the importance of choosing wisely the object of worshiping, because the wrong object of worshiping is
The happy father of thriving family makes a decision to get revenge and kill the murderer of his youngest son Frank. At the end of the short story, he succeeded in executing his plan and became a murderer himself. In my opinion, this story is about many things but justice. The act “an eye for an eye” is nothing more than a barbarian cliché. I wish that Matt Fowler have heard Wallace’s speech and, before making a horrible decision, thought about his further life, the life of his loving wife and the best friend, whom he made accomplices of his terrible crime. He chose worshipping the wrong Gods – Gods of vengeance, false righteousness and self-indulgence. He made the easiest choice and followed his instincts by default. Hence, he put a lot of thinking into executing a brutal crime; instead of dealing with a grief in more beneficial for his family and friends way. In result, as readers can understand from the last scene of the book, his deed made him numb and took away his life force (Dubus,