What's in your backpack?

How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you’re carrying a backpack.

Feel the straps on your shoulder. Feel them?

Pack it with all the stuff you have in your life. Start with the little things. Things on shelves, books, collectibles. Feel the weight that adds up. Then start adding larger stuffs. Clothes, lamps, TV. The backpack is getting pretty heavy now. Now go bigger. Kitchen table, your car, your home, no matter it’s a studio apartment or 2 bedroom house. 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, set that backpack on the fire. What do you want to take out of it? Photos? Photos are for people who can’t remember. In fact, let everything burn, and imagine waking up tomorrow with nothing.

Have a new backpack. Only this time, I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folk around the office, then move into people you trust with your most intimate secrets, your cousins, your aunts, your uncles, your brothers, your sisters, your parents, … get them into the backpack. 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? You don’t need to carry all that weight. Why don’t you set that bag down? The slower the move, the faster we die. We are not swans. We’re sharks.

Now, think about it for 10 seconds. All your relationships, they are making you harder, harder to breathe. Why don’t we set that bag down? And wake up tomorrow with nothing. Imagine how relieved it is!

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Think again

Try to remember


Your favorite memories...

The most important moments in your life...

Were you alone?

[special thanks for Jason Reitman]


Kz