Finding Meaning in the Mundanity

By Seoyeon Claudia Kim ‘28

Observing our surroundings often becomes a powerful source of inspiration.

David Foster Wallace’s speech to the Kenyon College graduates addresses this very idea. Unlike a conventional commencement address filled with life advice from the proverbial “wise older fish,” Wallace focuses instead on how to cope with the mundanity of everyday life. He reframes the purpose of education, something that may seem irrelevant to college graduates who would believe they have finished their ‘education’. Wallace opens with a bold statement: “the really significant education in thinking that we’re supposed to get in a place like this isn’t really about the capacity to think, but rather about the choice of what to think about.” He says that education allows something more than intellectual depth; it liberates one’s ability to make conscious choices about how to live. Rather than focusing on special moments, Wallace pays attention to the decisions made in the midst of  the ordinary. “The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.” Mood, attitude and the way one treats oneself and others are matters of choice. Wallace transforms a mundane college commencement speech into an engaging way on how to cope with and even enjoy the mundaneness in life. 

Michelle Zauner similarly transforms the mundane into meaning, articulating the grocery store as a space where her Korean identity lies. What could have been a mere description of a grocery store becomes a homage to her late mother and  her culture. “So, when I go to H Mart, I’m not just on the hunt for cuttlefish and three bunches of scallions for a buck; I’m searching for their memory. I’m collecting evidence that the Korean half of my identity didn’t die when they did.” Zauner continues to describe H Mart as an archive where her treasured memories lie within. Her memoir resonates universally because she integrates the market into a memory and a testament to her identity. Through her use of Korean terminology, her experience in H-Mart becomes something subjective to readers. Even readers who have never walked past rows of banchan, or the food court where conversations rose like the steam from a ttukbaeji of seolungtang, her description of a grocery store feels authentic and lively. The Korean language is not explained; instead it is deeply engraved in her writing, making her identity felt rather than translated. 

Both Wallace and Zauner draw profound lessons from the most ordinary of subjects. They share a belief that meaning can be distilled from the everyday, if one pays attention. But they diverge. 

To Zauner, she finds heritage and memory in the past commonalities. But Wallace suggests to live a life finding hope despite the mundane. “Maybe she’s not usually like this. Maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness.” Through the use of “maybe”, Wallace suggests his theory in the most articulated form: making considerate choices, for you and for others. By considering a potentially plausible situation, one can choose empathy over irritation. The truth behind these scenarios is beyond the point, what matters is the act of consideration itself. As a writer, Wallace exercises his authority to place readers inside the very mindset he advocates, creating an interactive and morally intrusive realm. 

Reading, too, becomes a way of perceiving the world. Books take us to realms that we have never experienced. It is a matter of choice to view the world in a crooked way, or to see the beauty in it. In a book, you can notice so many different things, and every read allows you to focus on things you haven’t noticed before. Observing the world is the same. Mundanity does not negate the meaningfulness, it rather fosters attention. Life, when truly observed, is a grandiose surprise over anything else.

References

Image 1: Zauner, M. (2021). Crying in H Mart: A Memoir [Book]. Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Crying-Mart-Memoir-Michelle-Zauner/dp/1984898957

Image 2: Bloom, S. (n.d.). The speech that changed how I see the world [Article]. Sahil Bloom Newsletter. https://www.sahilbloom.com/newsletter/the-speech-that-changed-how-i-see-the-world

Wallace, David Foster. “This Is Water.” Farnam Street, 28 Apr. 2012, fs.blog/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/.

Zauner, Michelle. “Crying in H Mart.” The New Yorker, 20 Aug. 2018,

www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/crying-in-h-mart.