Now that I’m dead, I want to tell you a few things.

But, first, please close your eyes and think about the things you love. Your favorite books or movies. Your favorite songs or sports. Your favorite toy when you were five. Your favorite cartoons and fictional heroes…

And now I want you to think about your favorite people. Real people. Your favorite actors and musicians and athletes and artists and writers and teachers and co-workers.

And your family.

And now I want you to bundle all of them together in the dark of your eyes. Wrap them together with your favorite moments of bed time stories and birthdays and graduations and trips to amusement parks and picnics and nightmares and holidays.

I want you to wrap them all up together and hold them deep inside you. In your heart. Because those things… Those things you love and cherish and remember and those people who you respected and admired and loved… Those are the things I want to tell you.

Those are the things that matter and those are the things in this life that count.

All the stress and all the pain and all the anger and hatred and the cynicism and the people who will tell you no and the tears — oh, the tears — none of them should matter compared to those things.

I know they do. And I know they seem so much bigger and so much more important and at times the cynicism and craziness and pain of the world will crush you. Nothing can stop that.

But take those things. Keep them inside you. They make you you and when you need them they’ll be there for you. And as long as you do… As long as you can remember those things, you’ll be fine. Cherish them. Use them to cut through the cynicism. Celebrate what you love, who you love, when you loved…

The things you love, the people who matter to you, the moments you hold on to… Those are the things I want to share with you. Those are the things that matter.