00:00Hey everyone, and welcome to The Explainer.
00:02Today, we are taking a massive leap back in time,
00:05about 2,400 years back to ancient Greece
00:08to look at a really short,
00:10but honestly incredibly powerful story
00:12by a famous storyteller named Aesop.
00:15Now Aesop, he was an absolute master
00:17at using simple little tales about everyday people
00:20and animals to teach us these huge life-changing lessons.
00:24And today, we're gonna look really closely
00:26at a story of his called The Two Bags.
00:30It's a story that is literally just as important for us today
00:32as it was thousands of years ago.
00:35But before we get right into Aesop's actual words,
00:38I want you to use your imagination for a second.
00:40Have you ever tried to carry two really, really heavy bags
00:42at the exact same time?
00:44Vividly imagine this with me.
00:45Picture yourself walking down the hallway.
00:47You've got this one massive clunky bag
00:49strapped right to your front.
00:51It's so big, it's bumping into your knees,
00:53it's totally blocking your view of your own feet,
00:55and you just keep bumping into things.
00:56Now imagine you have another giant,
00:59super heavy bag strapped to your back.
01:01It's dragging heavily behind you,
01:03pulling your shoulders way down,
01:04making you stumble and strain with every single step.
01:07You'd look pretty silly, right?
01:09Kind of wobbling around, leaning backward and forward,
01:12just trying to balance these two gigantic sacks.
01:14Well, just hold that funny, awkward picture in your mind.
01:17Okay, let's dive into section one,
01:20two very heavy bags.
01:22Because Aesop imagined that every single person
01:25walking around is actually carrying two invisible bags,
01:28exactly like the ones we just pictured.
01:30I'm going to read you the exact story now.
01:34It's only 53 words long, translated from ancient Greek.
01:38Aesop wrote,
01:39Every man carries two bags about with him,
01:42one in front and one behind,
01:43and both are packed full of faults.
01:45The bag in front contains his neighbor's faults,
01:48the one behind, his own.
01:50Hence it is that men do not see their own faults,
01:52but never fail to see those of others.
01:55And that's the whole story.
01:57Just 53 words,
01:58but man, it holds a massive idea.
02:01Moving right along to section two,
02:03what are faults?
02:04You see, the story uses a big,
02:07kind of old-fashioned word,
02:09faults.
02:10And understanding what that word means
02:12is absolutely crucial to getting Aesop's message.
02:15Let's define it.
02:16Faults are, well, simply mistakes.
02:18There are slip-ups, the little things we do wrong.
02:21So these heavy bags we're supposedly carrying,
02:23they aren't filled with rocks,
02:25or bowling balls, or heavy books.
02:27They are filled with our mistakes.
02:29A fault could be something like
02:30accidentally spilling your juice at breakfast.
02:32It could be forgetting to do your homework.
02:34It could even be saying something a little mean
02:36to your brother or sister
02:37when you're just feeling grumpy.
02:39And here is the absolutely most important thing
02:41I want you to know.
02:42Everyone has these slip-ups.
02:44Everyone has mistakes to put in their bags.
02:46There is literally nobody walking around with empty bags.
02:50Let's move to section three,
02:52the front and back.
02:53See, Aesop didn't just say we carry two bags.
02:56He was very, very specific
02:58about exactly where they hang on our bodies.
03:00This part brilliantly illustrates
03:02the big problem we all face.
03:04The bag in the front,
03:06the one strapped right to your chest,
03:07directly under your nose,
03:09that bag holds your neighbor's faults.
03:11And when Aesop says neighbors,
03:13he really means everyone else around you,
03:15your friends, your classmates, your family.
03:17Because their mistakes are in the front bag,
03:19they are super easy to see.
03:20You look down and boom,
03:22right there in front of you
03:23are all the things your friends did wrong.
03:25But the bag in the back?
03:26That one holds our own faults.
03:28Our own mistakes are tossed into a bag
03:30that gets dragged behind our backs,
03:32completely out of our eyesight.
03:34So the crucial point here
03:36is that we see others' mistakes so clearly,
03:38but we completely miss our own.
03:40Just because of how these invisible bags hang on us,
03:43we're super quick to notice
03:44when someone else messes up.
03:45If your friend drops their crayons all over the floor,
03:47it's right there in your front bag.
03:49You see it instantly.
03:50But because our own bag of mistakes
03:52is trailing right behind us,
03:54completely out of sight,
03:55we just sort of forget about it.
03:56We might forget our own pencil,
03:58but we don't notice it as much
03:59because that mistake went right into the back bag.
04:02Aesop is basically showing us
04:03this funny little trick our brains play on us.
04:06Which brings us to our final section,
04:08the lesson of kindness.
04:10How exactly can we use this ancient story
04:12in our real lives today?
04:15Here's how we turn a cool story
04:17into an amazing superpower.
04:19First off, always remember
04:20that everyone makes mistakes.
04:22Everyone has heavy bags.
04:24Second, because we know this,
04:26we need to try and forgive others
04:27for their front bag slip-ups.
04:29When you see a friend make a mistake,
04:31remember that it's only so obvious to you
04:33because it's right in front of your face.
04:35So cut them some slack.
04:36Third, and honestly,
04:38this is the really brave part,
04:39we need to gently check our own back bag.
04:41Even though we can't easily see it,
04:43we have to remind ourselves
04:44to sort of turn around
04:45and look at our own mistakes
04:46so we can learn and grow from them.
04:48And finally, just show kindness.
04:50Show kindness to your friends
04:52because they're carrying heavy bags,
04:53and definitely show kindness to yourself too.
04:55Don't be too hard on yourself
04:56when you realize your backpack
04:57is full of slip-ups.
04:58It is perfectly normal.
05:00And that brings us
05:01to the end of our explainer today,
05:02but I want to leave you
05:03with this final,
05:04very important question to think about.
05:07Next time you see a mistake,
05:08which bag will you check?
05:10Before you point out
05:11what's in the front bag,
05:12before you quickly point out
05:13what your friend did wrong,
05:14will you be brave enough
05:15to remember your own back bag?
05:17Keep Aesop's ancient story
05:18in your mind this week
05:19and try to use it
05:20to spread a little more kindness
05:21and forgiveness everywhere you go.
05:23Thanks so much for joining me
05:24to explore this incredible story,
05:26and I'll catch you next time.
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