0:00:00.428,0:00:03.425 Life is about opportunities, 0:00:03.425,0:00:06.575 creating them and embracing them, and for me, 0:00:06.575,0:00:08.506 that was the Olympic dream. 0:00:08.506,0:00:11.952 That's what defined me. That was my bliss. 0:00:11.952,0:00:15.701 As a cross-country skier and member of the Australian ski team, 0:00:15.701,0:00:17.346 headed towards the Winter Olympics, 0:00:17.346,0:00:21.575 I was on a training bike ride with my fellow teammates. 0:00:21.575,0:00:23.519 As we made our way up towards 0:00:23.519,0:00:26.669 the spectacular Blue Mountains west of Sydney, 0:00:26.669,0:00:29.133 it was the perfect autumn day: 0:00:29.133,0:00:33.318 sunshine, the smell of eucalypt and a dream. 0:00:33.318,0:00:34.751 Life was good. 0:00:34.751,0:00:37.649 We'd been on our bikes for around five and half hours 0:00:37.649,0:00:40.043 when we got to the part of the ride that I loved, 0:00:40.043,0:00:43.080 and that was the hills, because I loved the hills. 0:00:43.080,0:00:45.778 And I got up off the seat of my bike, and I started 0:00:45.778,0:00:48.731 pumping my legs, and as I sucked in the cold mountain air, 0:00:48.731,0:00:51.386 I could feel it burning my lungs, and I looked up 0:00:51.386,0:00:55.073 to see the sun shining in my face. 0:00:55.073,0:00:58.157 And then everything went black. 0:00:58.157,0:01:01.151 Where was I? What was happening? 0:01:01.151,0:01:04.752 My body was consumed by pain. 0:01:04.752,0:01:07.576 I'd been hit by a speeding utility truck 0:01:07.576,0:01:10.895 with only 10 minutes to go on the bike ride. 0:01:10.895,0:01:12.743 I was airlifted from the scene of the accident 0:01:12.743,0:01:16.351 by a rescue helicopter to a large spinal unit in Sydney. 0:01:16.351,0:01:19.403 I had extensive and life-threatening injuries. 0:01:19.403,0:01:23.539 I'd broken my neck and my back in six places. 0:01:23.539,0:01:26.116 I broke five ribs on my left side. 0:01:26.116,0:01:28.923 I broke my right arm. I broke my collarbone. 0:01:28.923,0:01:31.169 I broke some bones in my feet. 0:01:31.169,0:01:34.429 My whole right side was ripped open, filled with gravel. 0:01:34.429,0:01:36.723 My head was cut open across the front, lifted back, 0:01:36.723,0:01:38.184 exposing the skull underneath. 0:01:38.184,0:01:40.547 I had head injures. I had internal injuries. 0:01:40.547,0:01:43.228 I had massive blood loss. In fact, I lost about five liters 0:01:43.228,0:01:46.423 of blood, which is all someone my size would actually hold. 0:01:46.423,0:01:49.214 By the time the helicopter arrived at Prince Henry Hospital 0:01:49.214,0:01:53.585 in Sydney, my blood pressure was 40 over nothing. 0:01:53.585,0:01:58.988 I was having a really bad day. (Laughter) 0:02:02.635,0:02:07.732 For over 10 days, I drifted between two dimensions. 0:02:07.732,0:02:10.961 I had an awareness of being in my body, but also 0:02:10.961,0:02:13.290 being out of my body, somewhere else, watching 0:02:13.290,0:02:15.188 from above as if it was happening to someone else. 0:02:15.188,0:02:18.941 Why would I want to go back to a body that was so broken? 0:02:18.941,0:02:24.663 But this voice kept calling me: "Come on, stay with me." 0:02:24.663,0:02:27.168 "No. It's too hard." 0:02:27.168,0:02:30.121 "Come on. This is our opportunity." 0:02:30.121,0:02:34.090 "No. That body is broken. It can no longer serve me." 0:02:34.090,0:02:39.594 "Come on. Stay with me. We can do it. We can do it together." 0:02:39.594,0:02:41.877 I was at a crossroads. 0:02:41.877,0:02:45.745 I knew if I didn't return to my body, I'd have to leave this world forever. 0:02:45.745,0:02:49.903 It was the fight of my life. 0:02:49.903,0:02:54.653 After 10 days, I made the decision to return to my body, 0:02:54.653,0:02:59.045 and the internal bleeding stopped. 0:02:59.045,0:03:02.161 The next concern was whether I would walk again, 0:03:02.161,0:03:04.691 because I was paralyzed from the waist down. 0:03:04.691,0:03:07.413 They said to my parents, the neck break was a stable fracture, 0:03:07.413,0:03:09.103 but the back was completely crushed. 0:03:09.103,0:03:13.050 The vertebra at L1 was like you'd dropped a peanut, 0:03:13.050,0:03:16.268 stepped on it, smashed it into thousands of pieces. 0:03:16.268,0:03:18.699 They'd have to operate. 0:03:18.699,0:03:21.599 They went in. They put me on a beanbag. They cut me, 0:03:21.599,0:03:23.893 literally cut me in half, I have a scar 0:03:23.893,0:03:26.809 that wraps around my entire body. 0:03:26.809,0:03:29.419 They picked as much broken bone as they could 0:03:29.419,0:03:31.181 that had lodged in my spinal cord. 0:03:31.181,0:03:35.292 They took out two of my broken ribs, and they rebuilt my back, 0:03:35.292,0:03:38.126 L1, they rebuilt it, they took out another broken rib, 0:03:38.126,0:03:41.346 they fused T12, L1 and L2 together. 0:03:41.346,0:03:44.378 Then they stitched me up. They took an entire hour to stitch me up. 0:03:44.378,0:03:47.385 I woke up in intensive care, and the doctors were really excited 0:03:47.385,0:03:50.409 that the operation had been a success because at that stage 0:03:50.409,0:03:53.494 I had a little bit of movement in one of my big toes, 0:03:53.494,0:03:56.835 and I thought, "Great, because I'm going to the Olympics!" 0:03:56.835,0:03:58.721 (Laughter) 0:03:58.721,0:04:00.994 I had no idea. That's the sort of thing 0:04:00.994,0:04:04.081 that happens to someone else, not me, surely. 0:04:04.081,0:04:06.191 But then the doctor came over to me, and she said, 0:04:06.191,0:04:09.617 "Janine, the operation was a success, and we've picked 0:04:09.617,0:04:12.969 as much bone out of your spinal cord as we could, 0:04:12.969,0:04:14.073 but the damage is permanent. 0:04:14.073,0:04:17.390 The central nervous system nerves, there is no cure. 0:04:17.390,0:04:20.440 You're what we call a partial paraplegic, and you'll have 0:04:20.440,0:04:23.432 all of the injuries that go along with that. 0:04:23.432,0:04:26.640 You have no feeling from the waist down, and at most, 0:04:26.640,0:04:29.661 you might get 10- or 20-percent return. 0:04:29.661,0:04:32.782 You'll have internal injuries for the rest of your life. 0:04:32.782,0:04:35.200 You'll have to use a catheter for the rest of your life. 0:04:35.200,0:04:40.702 And if you walk again, it will be with calipers and a walking frame." 0:04:40.702,0:04:42.313 And then she said, "Janine, 0:04:42.313,0:04:44.416 you'll have to rethink everything you do in your life, 0:04:44.416,0:04:49.176 because you're never going to be able to do the things you did before." 0:04:49.176,0:04:51.889 I tried to grasp what she was saying. 0:04:51.889,0:04:54.351 I was an athlete. That's all I knew. That's all I'd done. 0:04:54.351,0:04:57.599 If I couldn't do that, then what could I do? 0:04:57.599,0:05:01.469 And the question I asked myself is, if I couldn't do that, 0:05:01.469,0:05:03.320 then who was I? 0:05:07.735,0:05:11.055 They moved me from intensive care to acute spinal. 0:05:11.055,0:05:13.474 I was lying on a thin, hard spinal bed. 0:05:13.474,0:05:16.017 I had no movement in my legs. I had tight stockings on 0:05:16.017,0:05:17.931 to protect from blood clots. 0:05:17.931,0:05:21.056 I had one arm in plaster, one arm tied down by drips. 0:05:21.056,0:05:23.813 I had a neck brace and sandbags on either side of my head 0:05:23.813,0:05:25.742 and I saw my world through a mirror 0:05:25.742,0:05:29.100 that was suspended above my head. 0:05:29.100,0:05:32.577 I shared the ward with five other people, 0:05:32.577,0:05:34.832 and the amazing thing is that because we were all lying 0:05:34.832,0:05:39.903 paralyzed in a spinal ward, we didn't know what each other looked like. 0:05:39.903,0:05:43.040 How amazing is that? How often in life 0:05:43.040,0:05:47.754 do you get to make friendships, judgment-free, 0:05:47.754,0:05:50.488 purely based on spirit? 0:05:50.488,0:05:52.999 And there were no superficial conversations 0:05:52.999,0:05:56.327 as we shared our innermost thoughts, our fears, 0:05:56.327,0:06:00.985 and our hopes for life after the spinal ward. 0:06:00.985,0:06:03.702 I remember one night, one of the nurses came in, 0:06:03.702,0:06:07.892 Jonathan, with a whole lot of plastic straws. 0:06:07.892,0:06:10.561 He put a pile on top of each of us, and he said, 0:06:10.561,0:06:13.313 "Start threading them together." 0:06:13.313,0:06:16.614 Well, there wasn't much else to do in the spinal ward, so we did. 0:06:16.614,0:06:20.255 And when we'd finished, he went around silently 0:06:20.255,0:06:22.740 and he joined all of the straws up 0:06:22.740,0:06:26.313 till it looped around the whole ward, and then he said, 0:06:26.313,0:06:30.245 "Okay, everybody, hold on to your straws." 0:06:30.245,0:06:37.220 And we did. And he said, "Right. Now we're all connected." 0:06:37.220,0:06:42.680 And as we held on, and we breathed as one, 0:06:42.680,0:06:47.033 we knew we weren't on this journey alone. 0:06:47.033,0:06:51.537 And even lying paralyzed in the spinal ward, 0:06:51.537,0:06:54.759 there were moments of incredible depth and richness, 0:06:54.759,0:06:58.011 of authenticity and connection 0:06:58.011,0:07:02.355 that I had never experienced before. 0:07:02.355,0:07:06.836 And each of us knew that when we left the spinal ward 0:07:06.836,0:07:11.655 we would never be the same. 0:07:11.655,0:07:15.817 After six months, it was time to go home. 0:07:15.817,0:07:19.283 I remember Dad pushing me outside in my wheelchair, 0:07:19.283,0:07:22.144 wrapped in a plaster body cast, 0:07:22.144,0:07:25.115 and feeling the sun on my face for the first time. 0:07:25.115,0:07:27.053 I soaked it up and I thought, 0:07:27.053,0:07:30.927 how could I ever have taken this for granted? 0:07:30.927,0:07:35.204 I felt so incredibly grateful for my life. 0:07:35.204,0:07:37.199 But before I left the hospital, the head nurse 0:07:37.199,0:07:39.418 had said to me, "Janine, I want you to be ready, 0:07:39.418,0:07:42.153 because when you get home, something's going to happen." 0:07:42.153,0:07:44.045 And I said, "What?" And she said, 0:07:44.045,0:07:46.151 "You're going to get depressed." 0:07:46.151,0:07:48.866 And I said, "Not me, not Janine the Machine," 0:07:48.866,0:07:51.046 which was my nickname. 0:07:51.046,0:07:53.912 She said, "You are, because, see, it happens to everyone. 0:07:53.912,0:07:56.659 In the spinal ward, that's normal. 0:07:56.659,0:07:57.972 You're in a wheelchair. That's normal. 0:07:57.972,0:08:00.142 But you're going to get home and realize 0:08:00.142,0:08:02.238 how different life is." 0:08:02.238,0:08:06.071 And I got home and something happened. 0:08:08.641,0:08:11.660 I realized Sister Sam was right. 0:08:11.660,0:08:14.554 I did get depressed. 0:08:14.554,0:08:17.925 I was in my wheelchair. I had no feeling from the waist down, 0:08:17.925,0:08:21.494 attached to a catheter bottle. I couldn't walk. 0:08:21.494,0:08:23.627 I'd lost so much weight in the hospital 0:08:23.627,0:08:27.389 I now weighed about 80 pounds. 0:08:27.389,0:08:29.910 And I wanted to give up. 0:08:29.910,0:08:33.340 All I wanted to do was put my running shoes on and run out the door. 0:08:33.340,0:08:36.727 I wanted my old life back. I wanted my body back. 0:08:36.727,0:08:39.247 And I can remember Mom sitting on the end of my bed, 0:08:39.247,0:08:43.140 and saying, "I wonder if life will ever be good again."[br] 0:08:43.140,0:08:47.436 And I thought, "How could it? Because I've lost everything 0:08:47.436,0:08:51.636 that I valued, everything that I'd worked towards. 0:08:51.636,0:08:54.513 Gone." 0:08:54.513,0:08:59.537 And the question I asked was, "Why me? Why me?" 0:08:59.537,0:09:03.436 And then I remembered my friends 0:09:03.436,0:09:05.839 that were still in the spinal ward, 0:09:05.839,0:09:07.483 particularly Maria. 0:09:07.483,0:09:09.593 Maria was in a car accident, and she woke up 0:09:09.593,0:09:14.440 on her 16th birthday to the news that she was a complete quadriplegic, 0:09:14.440,0:09:16.733 had no movement from the neck down, 0:09:16.733,0:09:20.422 had damage to her vocal chords, and she couldn't talk. 0:09:20.422,0:09:22.696 They told me, "We're going to move you next to her 0:09:22.696,0:09:24.991 because we think it will be good for her." 0:09:24.991,0:09:28.321 I was worried. I didn't know how I'd react 0:09:28.321,0:09:30.270 to being next to her. 0:09:30.270,0:09:34.194 I knew it would be challenging, but it was actually a blessing, 0:09:34.194,0:09:39.436 because Maria always smiled. 0:09:39.436,0:09:43.858 She was always happy, and even when she began to talk again, 0:09:43.858,0:09:49.935 albeit difficult to understand, she never complained, not once. 0:09:49.935,0:09:55.758 And I wondered how had she ever found that level of acceptance. 0:09:55.758,0:10:00.477 And I realized that this wasn't just my life. 0:10:00.477,0:10:04.782 It was life itself. I realized that this wasn't just my pain. 0:10:04.782,0:10:09.925 It was everybody's pain. And then I knew, just like before, 0:10:09.925,0:10:14.257 that I had a choice. I could keep fighting this 0:10:14.257,0:10:19.278 or I could let go and accept not only my body 0:10:19.278,0:10:22.661 but the circumstances of my life. 0:10:22.661,0:10:26.476 And then I stopped asking, "Why me?" 0:10:26.476,0:10:29.429 And I started to ask, "Why not me?" 0:10:29.429,0:10:33.556 And then I thought to myself, maybe being at rock bottom 0:10:33.556,0:10:40.447 is actually the perfect place to start. 0:10:40.447,0:10:44.439 I had never before thought of myself as a creative person. 0:10:44.439,0:10:48.103 I was an athlete. My body was a machine. 0:10:48.103,0:10:52.794 But now I was about to embark on the most creative project 0:10:52.794,0:10:54.729 that any of us could ever do: 0:10:54.729,0:10:57.449 that of rebuilding a life. 0:10:57.449,0:11:00.008 And even though I had absolutely no idea 0:11:00.008,0:11:02.863 what I was going to do, in that uncertainty 0:11:02.863,0:11:05.307 came a sense of freedom. 0:11:05.307,0:11:08.061 I was no longer tied to a set path. 0:11:08.061,0:11:14.183 I was free to explore life's infinite possibilities. 0:11:14.183,0:11:20.403 And that realization was about to change my life. 0:11:20.403,0:11:25.207 Sitting at home in my wheelchair and my plaster body cast, 0:11:25.207,0:11:29.096 an airplane flew overhead, and I looked up, 0:11:29.096,0:11:32.003 and I thought to myself, "That's it! 0:11:32.003,0:11:36.366 If I can't walk, then I might as well fly." 0:11:36.366,0:11:39.002 I said, "Mom, I'm going to learn how to fly." 0:11:39.002,0:11:43.142 She said, "That's nice, dear." (Laughter) 0:11:43.142,0:11:45.073 I said, "Pass me the yellow pages." 0:11:45.073,0:11:47.415 She passed me the phone book, I rang up the flying school, 0:11:47.415,0:11:50.377 I made a booking, said I'd like to make a booking to come out for a flight. 0:11:50.377,0:11:53.008 They said, "You know, when do you want to come out?" 0:11:53.008,0:11:54.861 I said, "Well, I have to get a friend to drive me out 0:11:54.861,0:11:58.170 because I can't drive. Sort of can't walk either. 0:11:58.170,0:11:59.160 Is that a problem?" 0:11:59.160,0:12:01.257 I made a booking, and weeks later my friend Chris 0:12:01.257,0:12:03.034 and my mom drove me out to the airport, 0:12:03.034,0:12:05.727 all 80 pounds of me covered in a plaster body cast 0:12:05.727,0:12:08.763 in a baggy pair of overalls. (Laughter) 0:12:08.763,0:12:11.561 I can tell you, I did not look like the ideal candidate 0:12:11.561,0:12:14.351 to get a pilot's license. (Laughter) 0:12:14.351,0:12:16.717 I'm holding on to the counter because I can't stand. 0:12:16.717,0:12:18.531 I said, "Hi, I'm here for a flying lesson." 0:12:18.531,0:12:21.797 And they took one look and ran out the back to draw short straws. 0:12:21.797,0:12:25.715 "You get her."[br]"No, no, you take her." 0:12:25.715,0:12:27.045 Finally this guy comes out. He goes, 0:12:27.045,0:12:28.828 "Hi, I'm Andrew, and I'm going to take you flying." 0:12:28.828,0:12:30.456 I go, "Great." And so they drive me down, 0:12:30.456,0:12:31.784 they get me out on the tarmac, 0:12:31.784,0:12:33.542 and there was this red, white and blue airplane. 0:12:33.542,0:12:36.876 It was beautiful. They lifted me into the cockpit. 0:12:36.876,0:12:39.474 They had to slide me up on the wing, put me in the cockpit. 0:12:39.474,0:12:41.747 They sat me down. There are buttons and dials everywhere. 0:12:41.747,0:12:45.280 I'm going, "Wow, how do you ever know what all these buttons and dials do?" 0:12:45.280,0:12:47.823 Andrew the instructor got in the front, started the airplane up. 0:12:47.823,0:12:49.885 He said, "Would you like to have a go at taxiing?" 0:12:49.885,0:12:52.086 That's when you use your feet to control the rudder pedals 0:12:52.086,0:12:54.111 to control the airplane on the ground. 0:12:54.111,0:12:56.458 I said, "No, I can't use my legs." 0:12:56.458,0:12:57.670 He went, "Oh." 0:12:57.670,0:13:00.477 I said, "But I can use my hands," and he said, "Okay." 0:13:00.477,0:13:03.506 So he got over to the runway, and he applied the power. 0:13:03.506,0:13:06.315 And as we took off down the runway, 0:13:06.315,0:13:10.325 and the wheels lifted up off the tarmac, and we became airborne, 0:13:10.325,0:13:15.356 I had the most incredible sense of freedom. 0:13:15.356,0:13:17.822 And Andrew said to me, 0:13:17.822,0:13:20.403 as we got over the training area, 0:13:20.403,0:13:22.879 "You see that mountain over there?" 0:13:22.879,0:13:24.412 And I said, "Yeah." 0:13:24.412,0:13:29.168 And he said, "Well, you take the controls, and you fly towards that mountain." 0:13:29.168,0:13:31.650 And as I looked up, I realized 0:13:31.650,0:13:34.873 that he was pointing towards the Blue Mountains 0:13:34.873,0:13:37.853 where the journey had begun. 0:13:37.853,0:13:42.438 And I took the controls, and I was flying. 0:13:42.438,0:13:45.491 And I was a long, long way from that spinal ward, 0:13:45.491,0:13:49.633 and I knew right then that I was going to be a pilot. 0:13:49.633,0:13:53.503 Didn't know how on Earth I'd ever pass a medical. 0:13:53.503,0:13:56.562 But I'd worry about that later, because right now I had a dream. 0:13:56.562,0:14:00.786 So I went home, I got a training diary out, and I had a plan. 0:14:00.786,0:14:03.616 And I practiced my walking as much as I could, 0:14:03.616,0:14:06.750 and I went from the point of two people holding me up 0:14:06.750,0:14:09.625 to one person holding me up 0:14:09.625,0:14:11.527 to the point where I could walk around the furniture 0:14:11.527,0:14:14.260 as long as it wasn't too far apart. 0:14:14.260,0:14:16.452 And then I made great progression to the point 0:14:16.452,0:14:18.684 where I could walk around the house, holding onto the walls, 0:14:18.684,0:14:22.274 like this, and Mom said she was forever following me, 0:14:22.274,0:14:25.927 wiping off my fingerprints. (Laughter) 0:14:25.927,0:14:30.606 But at least she always knew where I was. 0:14:30.606,0:14:32.992 So while the doctors continued to operate 0:14:32.992,0:14:35.029 and put my body back together again, 0:14:35.029,0:14:38.684 I went on with my theory study, and then eventually, 0:14:38.684,0:14:42.119 and amazingly, I passed my pilot's medical, 0:14:42.119,0:14:44.651 and that was my green light to fly. 0:14:44.651,0:14:47.315 And I spent every moment I could out at that flying school, 0:14:47.315,0:14:48.853 way out of my comfort zone, 0:14:48.853,0:14:51.255 all these young guys that wanted to be Qantas pilots, 0:14:51.255,0:14:54.742 you know, and little old hop-along me in first my plaster cast, 0:14:54.742,0:14:57.443 and then my steel brace, my baggy overalls, 0:14:57.443,0:15:01.009 my bag of medication and catheters and my limp, 0:15:01.009,0:15:02.270 and they used to look at me and think, 0:15:02.270,0:15:05.641 "Oh, who is she kidding? She's never going to be able to do this." 0:15:05.641,0:15:07.544 And sometimes I thought that too. 0:15:07.544,0:15:12.044 But that didn't matter, because now there was something inside that burned 0:15:12.044,0:15:16.431 that far outweighed my injuries. 0:15:16.431,0:15:18.396 And little goals kept me going along the way, 0:15:18.396,0:15:22.122 and eventually I got my private pilot's license, 0:15:22.122,0:15:27.352 and then I learned to navigate, and I flew my friends around Australia. 0:15:27.352,0:15:30.180 And then I learned to fly an airplane with two engines 0:15:30.180,0:15:32.746 and I got my twin engine rating. 0:15:32.746,0:15:35.691 And then I learned to fly in bad weather as well as fine weather 0:15:35.691,0:15:38.156 and got my instrument rating. 0:15:38.156,0:15:41.260 And then I got my commercial pilot's license. 0:15:41.260,0:15:43.983 And then I got my instructor rating. 0:15:43.983,0:15:47.182 And then I found myself back at that same school 0:15:47.182,0:15:49.430 where I'd gone for that very first flight, 0:15:49.430,0:15:52.576 teaching other people how to fly, 0:15:52.576,0:15:56.718 just under 18 months after I'd left the spinal ward. 0:15:56.718,0:16:08.272 (Applause) 0:16:08.272,0:16:10.423 And then I thought, "Why stop there? 0:16:10.423,0:16:13.694 Why not learn to fly upside down?" 0:16:13.694,0:16:16.348 And I did, and I learned to fly upside down 0:16:16.348,0:16:20.406 and became an aerobatics flying instructor. 0:16:20.406,0:16:26.589 And Mom and Dad? Never been up. 0:16:26.589,0:16:32.304 But then I knew for certain that although my body might be limited, 0:16:32.304,0:16:37.466 it was my spirit that was unstoppable. 0:16:37.466,0:16:40.847 The philosopher Lao Tzu once said, 0:16:40.847,0:16:43.766 "When you let go of what you are, 0:16:43.766,0:16:47.197 you become what you might be." 0:16:47.197,0:16:52.102 I now know that it wasn't until I let go of who I thought I was 0:16:52.102,0:16:56.303 that I was able to create a completely new life. 0:16:56.303,0:17:00.940 It wasn't until I let go of the life I thought I should have 0:17:00.940,0:17:05.724 that I was able to embrace the life that was waiting for me. 0:17:05.724,0:17:08.945 I now know that my real strength 0:17:08.945,0:17:12.162 never came from my body, 0:17:12.162,0:17:17.169 and although my physical capabilities have changed dramatically, 0:17:17.169,0:17:20.952 who I am is unchanged. 0:17:20.952,0:17:25.291 The pilot light inside of me was still a light, 0:17:25.291,0:17:29.988 just as it is in each and every one of us. 0:17:29.988,0:17:33.211 I know that I'm not my body, 0:17:33.211,0:17:36.659 and I also know that you're not yours. 0:17:36.659,0:17:40.935 And then it no longer matters what you look like, 0:17:40.935,0:17:45.253 where you come from, or what you do for a living. 0:17:45.253,0:17:50.700 All that matters is that we continue to fan the flame of humanity 0:17:50.700,0:17:54.752 by living our lives as the ultimate creative expression 0:17:54.752,0:17:58.518 of who we really are, 0:17:58.518,0:18:01.324 because we are all connected 0:18:01.324,0:18:05.471 by millions and millions of straws, 0:18:05.471,0:18:08.392 and it's time to join those up 0:18:08.392,0:18:10.199 and to hang on. 0:18:10.199,0:18:14.563 And if we are to move towards our collective bliss, 0:18:14.563,0:18:17.286 it's time we shed our focus on the physical 0:18:17.286,0:18:21.121 and instead embrace the virtues of the heart. 0:18:21.121,0:18:25.200 So raise your straws if you'll join me. 0:18:25.200,0:18:31.479 Thank you. (Applause) 0:18:31.479,0:18:36.449 Thank you.