Reading both David Foster Wallace's "This is Water" and Toni Morrison's Nobel Lecture I understand how both authors tell us its up to us how we chose to see society and also decide how we want to handle society.
David Wallace says you can choose the way you think, like when you see a lady screaming at her little child you can think "what a horrible person to scream at her child" or as Wallace says you can change the way you think by thinking "maybe she's not usually like this; maybe she's been up three straight night's holding the hand of her husband who's dying of bone cancer, maybe..." Also Toni Morrison has a similar concept as she talks about the wise old women talking about the bird in the youth's hands. When they ask the old woman if the bird is alive or dead the old woman says "I don't know whether the bird you are holding is dead or alive, but what I do know is that it is in your hands." which essentially means its in there hands or their choice to ether kill society or to let society live.
Over all both authors are saying "it is in your hands," because it is in this youth's generation to let this society either strive or die with the way they decide to see it.
I agree exactly with what the point that you are making in this post. Through their own stories, both authors are basically telling us that we can change our own world and make it better by just changing our own mindsets. We are able to make our own lives better or worse depending on the simple ways that we chose to look and react to the world around us. If we chose to be negative and not think of other people and their opinions, then we will have many negative experiences. On the other hand, if we go about our days with a positive outlook on everything and we consider other people's feelings and experiences, we will have a much happier life.
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