This is what he says:
Now this is going to be a little difficult, so stay with me.
How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second you are carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff you have in your life and start with the little things the shelves, the drawers, the nicknacks: then start adding larger stuff, clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV – backpack should be getting pretty heavy now – and you go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home – I want you to stuff it all into that backpack.
Now I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office, and then you move to the people that you trust with your most intimate secrets, your brothers and sisters, your children, parents, and finally your husband, wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend – and get ‘em into that backpack – feel the weight of that bag.
Make no mistake; your relationships are your heaviest components in your life. all those negotiations and arguments and secrets are compromising. The slower we move, the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live, symbiotically over a lifetime, star-crossed lovers, monogamous swans - we are not swans, we are sharks.
I am using this speech to move on with my life, to get ahead, to stop feeling so overwhelmed and pressured. So first I begin with minimising my belongings. I don't own much, lucky me, I have the clothes and the shoes that I wear, I have my puppy, I have my car and I have all of that other junk I haven't looked at in years.
Since moving I have rid myself of the material weight. I have donated bags and bags of clothes and shoes. I am selling my furniture bit by bit and I am about to tackle the junk. Birthday cards, Christmas cards, love letters, photographs, sentimental items. What is one supposed to do with these things?! It is depressing enough just thinking of having to look at this stuff. Someone suggested to have a big bonfire, chuck it all in there.
What about the weight of relationships? What am I supposed to do in that regard? When it comes to my family, I am the one who carries the burden of knowledge, I am the one who takes on that role as the counsellor, the manager, the umpire. It is hard and it is heavy. Why do I do it? For love. I love them. They are my family. If I ceased to be who I am to them then I fear we will be nothing. I won't have a family. It already borders on the brink of extinction and I don't like it, I won't have it.
So the best I can do, it seems, is to start with the material things and see where I go from there.
How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second you are carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff you have in your life and start with the little things the shelves, the drawers, the nicknacks: then start adding larger stuff, clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV – backpack should be getting pretty heavy now – and you go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home – I want you to stuff it all into that backpack.
Now I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office, and then you move to the people that you trust with your most intimate secrets, your brothers and sisters, your children, parents, and finally your husband, wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend – and get ‘em into that backpack – feel the weight of that bag.
Make no mistake; your relationships are your heaviest components in your life. all those negotiations and arguments and secrets are compromising. The slower we move, the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live, symbiotically over a lifetime, star-crossed lovers, monogamous swans - we are not swans, we are sharks.
I am using this speech to move on with my life, to get ahead, to stop feeling so overwhelmed and pressured. So first I begin with minimising my belongings. I don't own much, lucky me, I have the clothes and the shoes that I wear, I have my puppy, I have my car and I have all of that other junk I haven't looked at in years.
Since moving I have rid myself of the material weight. I have donated bags and bags of clothes and shoes. I am selling my furniture bit by bit and I am about to tackle the junk. Birthday cards, Christmas cards, love letters, photographs, sentimental items. What is one supposed to do with these things?! It is depressing enough just thinking of having to look at this stuff. Someone suggested to have a big bonfire, chuck it all in there.
What about the weight of relationships? What am I supposed to do in that regard? When it comes to my family, I am the one who carries the burden of knowledge, I am the one who takes on that role as the counsellor, the manager, the umpire. It is hard and it is heavy. Why do I do it? For love. I love them. They are my family. If I ceased to be who I am to them then I fear we will be nothing. I won't have a family. It already borders on the brink of extinction and I don't like it, I won't have it.
So the best I can do, it seems, is to start with the material things and see where I go from there.
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