[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI
[2] https://jamesclear.com/great-speeches/this-is-water-by-david...
Not ashamed to say I've cried more than once listening to it. It's a lifesaver.
The general theme is that regardless of the monotonous reality, there’s still plenty of beauty and intrigue to find within it if you look closely enough.
To make this point, The Pale King is about an IRS agent and it includes long, meditative descriptions of turning the pages of extremely long tax forms. I don’t know what philosophical ideas DFW ran into explicitly, i.e. whether he was reframing or actually deriving them, but he was absolutely rubbing up against what we now call mindfulness.
Edit to add one of my favorite scenes in literature ever, with no spoiler or even narrative substance: There's a scene where two characters are talking to one another and one party becomes so engrossed by the conversation that he begins to literally levitate out of his chair. I find this such a simple description of a truly profound experience (~~flow state).
One approach can be to hate it and cut it super short and not take care of it and it slowly turns into a weed patch and something you resent even more. But you still have to get out there and cut it.
Another approach is to learn about cultivation and care and take pride in it and think of the benefits like exercise and having a lawn you take pride in. You also open up the option to learn a lot of things.
So now something that has to be done isn't something you dread because you were determined to find something good in it.
If you can't find any way to take this approach with something then you have to make it not exist (don't have a lawn) or outsource it (pay landscaping company to cut it).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJXrXf-0yoQ
People laugh, and it is a bit funny, but it's also deadly serious.
True heroism receives no ovation. It's just you against the world with no one to see or cheer.
The sadly-late Norm Macdonald was a good proponent.
Fwiw though I watched this after your post and I'd say that's not really the same. I'm not sure what you call this technique in speeches with such a setup but it adds great emotional gravity and is something I see and appreciate a lot in speeches like this (or even shows like The Good Place which is incredible but can't be described further without spoilers).
This commencement speech that Wallace gave is deeply moving and thought-provoking to me every time I listen to it -- and I have probably heard it at least 10 times.
I have shared it with others, most of whom have had a very similar reaction to it.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Foster_Wallace#Death
He's such a smug intellectual brat HOWEVER he's fully self-aware of his personality shortcomings and seems to set his qualms and enjoy himself despite of himself by the end.
https://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/HarpersMagazi...