The Backpack Explored

Life is strange. It teaches you things you never wished were true, and that too in the most cruel of ways. 
Some days back , I was watching this movie "Up in the Air" . There was a very thoughtful concept in it. For those who have seen it, its the "What's in your Backpack" thing I am talking about. For those who have not, well I found it over the internet, it goes as follows.


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 them?

I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life.
You start with the little things.
Things on shelves, in the drawers, the knickknacks, collectibles.
Feel the weight it all adds up.

Then you start adding larger stuff.
Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, linens, your TV.
The backpack should be getting pretty heavy now.

You go bigger.
Your couch, your 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 kinda hard, isn't it?
This is what we do to ourselves on a daily basis:
we weigh ourselves down til we can't even move
and make no mistake; moving is living

Now, I'm gonna set that backpack on fire.
What do you wanna 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 kinda exhilarating, isn't it?

...

This is how I start everyday of my life.
Now this is gonna be a little difficult, so stay with me.

You have a new backpack.
Now 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 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, your girlfriend.

Get them into that backpack.
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.

Feel the straps cutting into your shoulders.
All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises.
You need to carry all that weight.
Then 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.



I say we burn the second backpack while keeping it on. What will happen is ,the people wont stay there and and burn with you. They will jump out of the backpack. 
What I am trying to say is you make so much efforts in trying to carry those relationships, the burden with you. But when really needed ,when you are in the downward phase of your life, you will be alone.


It may be contradictory to what all of us think and it may ignite the opposite thoughts in people but this is my personal opinion and experience. Everyone has the right to have there's.


For me this is the reason of nearly all grown ups turning loners. After a point in your life you just get frustrated to look for help or look upto someone or look for some support. Believe it or not, you are on your own. Be a shark as soon as you realize the fact that people are making a swan out of you. Its a human tendency to grow and achieve greater heights but its also a human tendency to stop others in doing so. At the end of the day you are all on your own. 


Don't be the one who needs others help. Be the capable one whose help others need.