How much does your life weigh?
Imagine for a second that you're carrying a backpack
I want you to feel the straps on your shoulders. Feel 'em?
I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life. You start with the little things. The things on shelves and in drawers, the knick-knacks, the collectibles
Feel the weight as that adds up
Then you start adding larger stuff, clothes, table-top appliances, lamps, linens, your TV
The backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. And you go bigger
Your couch, bed, your kitchen table. Stuff it all in there. Your car, get it in there
Your home, whether it's a studio apartment or a two bedroom house. I want you to stuff it all into that backpack
Now try to walk. It's kind of hard, isn't it?
This is what we do to ourselves on a daily basis. We weigh ourselves down until we can't even move. And make no mistake, moving is living
Now, I'm gonna set that backpack on fire. What do you want to take out of it?
Photos? Photos are for people who can't remember. Drink some ginkgo and let the photos burn
In fact, let everything burn and imagine waking up tomorrow with nothing. It's kind of exhilarating, isn't it?
Now, this is gonna be a little difficult, so stay with me
You have a new backpack. Only this time, I want you to fill it with people
Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office, and then you move into the people that you trust with your most intimate secrets
Your cousins, your aunts, your uncles, your brothers, your sisters, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend or your girlfriend
You get them into that backpack
And don't worry. I'm not gonna ask you to light it on fire
Feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake - your relationships are the heaviest components in your life
Do you feel the straps cutting into your shoulders?
All those negotiations and arguments, and secrets and compromises
You don't need to carry all that weight. Why don't you set that bag down?
Some animals were meant to carry each other, to live symbiotically for a lifetime - star crossed lovers, monogamous swans
We are not those animals
The slower we move, the faster we die. We are not swans
We're sharks