YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9w0L-LVnDX0
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View count:180,479
Likes:12,604
Comments:2,858
Duration:03:39
Uploaded:2016-08-03
Last sync:2024-08-30 23:30

Citation

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MLA Full: "Lives Made of Love - Esther Day 2016." YouTube, uploaded by vlogbrothers, 3 August 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w0L-LVnDX0.
MLA Inline: (vlogbrothers, 2016)
APA Full: vlogbrothers. (2016, August 3). Lives Made of Love - Esther Day 2016 [Video]. YouTube. https://youtube.com/watch?v=9w0L-LVnDX0
APA Inline: (vlogbrothers, 2016)
Chicago Full: vlogbrothers, "Lives Made of Love - Esther Day 2016.", August 3, 2016, YouTube, 03:39,
https://youtube.com/watch?v=9w0L-LVnDX0.
Esther Earl was a Nerdfighter who died in 2010 when she was 16. When she was very sick, her family asked her how she would like them to celebrate her birthday after she was gone. She said that she wanted them all to take the day to say "I love you" to the people who you love, but you maybe don't say it enough, or maybe it's hard to do.

Which is just, like, the kindest, most thoughtful answer to that question ever.

So...Today is Esther day, and I love my brother John Green.

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John's twitter - http://twitter.com/johngreen
John's tumblr - http://fishingboatproceeds.tumblr.com
Hank's twitter - http://twitter.com/hankgreen
Hank's tumblr - http://edwardspoonhands.tumblr.com
Good morning John. Special day, special extra video.

Yesterday you talked in your video about 08/08/08 and Terminus the Harry Potter convention that we went to. I wanted to add to that conversation because it was just a big deal. Just before that event I picked up from Kinko's, some very nice people made for me, a hundred CDs with my music on it. The album was called Songs from Hank Green's Pants Terminus edition, and I don't remember anything about it except that I ripped most of the songs directly from my own YouTube videos. So it wasn't like a really high quality enterprise or anything. But we did sell every single one of the ones that we didn't give away.

I wonder if anybody still has a copy of that. Or the one that I did before that, the several songs from Hank Green's Pants, which we sold at an event in Michigan. If anybody has either of those I would like to buy them from you, because it made me realize in a new way how much support we had from this community and it felt so good to be selling my music. And I also kind of want a memento to remember that day with, because it was a really big day. It was my first Harry Potter convention, one of the first times I played music in front of people. I met a bunch of people that I'm still great friends with and that I love dearly to this day. And that feeling of support I got from people buying my stuff and also, you know, knowing that it was going to help me pay bills and stuff led directly to me creating with Alan Lastufka DFTBA Records.

You don't always know when you're inside of a super life-changing moment, and sometimes you do, like, for example, right now, I know that I'm inside one of those moments, because we're gonna have a baby and that's definitely, I've heard, pretty life changing.  It's very clear to me now as a person who's adding to his family and who has a lot of really wonderful people in his life who I love a lot is that the things that make life special aren't necessarily these big great events and I've gotten to have a lot of those and I'm very grateful for them, very unusual things happening to me, so much even that it starts to seem normal.  What makes life special is the people you love and the people who love you and knowing that and feeling that and helping them feel it from you, because I think all too often we forget about that fabric that holds it all together, which is that we appreciate each other for who we are. 

Today is Esther Day, August 3rd, a day on which we celebrate the kinds of love that society is maybe a little less good at celebrating because it may be not quite as exciting.  Despite the fact that it's the fabric that holds our entire society together.  I love you, John, I love you not just because we've been able to do a lot of really cool weird things together through this project, and not even because you're a great collaborator and partner and thinker, but because you're a great brother.  Because you're there for me, even when I'm being a jerk or when I'm confused and angry and like, not even acting in my own best interests.  You want the best things for me, you're willing to work through my issues to help me when I need help, which is all the time, and I want so much and try so hard to be the same thing for you, because I love you.  Not for any other reason.  Just that one. 

Life changing moments, they're great, whether you know you're in them or not, I think they deserve to be looked at and enjoyed, it's sort of like, connected with and realize that you're on a trajectory in your life and that you're moving through it and having things happen to you, that's all wonderful, but achievements aren't what life is made of.  I think the best lives are made of love, and I wanna thank Esther for giving us a day to remember that.

John, you'll see me tomorrow for a very cool thing that I'm excited about that we've been working on for a long time!  So, get ready for that.  Mostly if you're American though, sorry everybody else.  You get an extra video this week if you're not American, you get this one.  So, sorry, everyone who's not American.