My Brain Knows
My Brain Knows
My brain is an island very much like the island I live on, surrounded by the waters my ancestors called home. The cerebrospinal fluid is the shock absorber encasing my brain. I need it. I need it to protect my brain. I need my brain to protect my heart; my heart that’s been stomped upon, crushed, and broken by lies. Lies from loved ones, from society, from online people I’ve never even met.
But my heart knows to tell my brain. And MY brain is very smart. It knows what it doesn’t know. And it knows where to find IT.
IT is knowledge. My people called it 'ike. It lives in everything. Every creature, every tree, every person. Everyone. Even people like me. Older, slower. Set in our ways. Jaded by life’s rough edges. Even people like me. For many years my brain stayed dormant like the volcanos that built my island. Rooted in the daily rigmarole called adulthood.
Below its surface my brain simmers, a hot spot for knowledge. It reminds me about what I don’t know. Softly, then louder, and louder still. Until there was nothing, I could do except… GO. So, I went in search of knowledge and I found education. Now my ancestors had ways of looking at these things. They called it kinolau, which are the many spirit forms. And that is how I found education, the kinolau of knowledge. Sometimes education becomes the kinolau we call school. But brick and mortar do not protect me from a world filled with poverty, abuse, and racism. But my brain can.
My brain knows how to take that knowledge and send it to my heart. It knows how to tell my heart that it’s using knowledge to unlock secrets from times long forgotten but still relevant today. My brain knows how to take education and distill its essence into the antidote we desperately need. The antidote for compassion toward fellow humans. The antidote to protect the land that sustains us. The antidote to peace and longevity. My brain knows the kinolau of education can restore broken homes, end addictions, and stop human atrocities. My brain knows the kinolau of education can accept people for who they are regardless of who they love, can foster tolerance for all cultures and races,
can make me an agent of change.
So, I rise today, ready to accept the knowledge of my ancestors; to absorb the kinolau of education. To move from what I don’t know into the human I was uniquely designed to be, changing the world one heart at a time.
My brain knows how to take that knowledge and send it to my heart. It knows how to tell my heart that it’s using knowledge to unlock secrets from times long forgotten but still relevant today. My brain knows how to take education and distill its essence into the antidote we desperately need. The antidote for compassion toward fellow humans. The antidote to protect the land that sustains us. The antidote to peace and longevity. My brain knows the kinolau of education can restore broken homes, end addictions, and stop human atrocities. My brain knows the kinolau of education can accept people for who they are regardless of who they love, can foster tolerance for all cultures and races,
can make me an agent of change.
So, I rise today, ready to accept the knowledge of my ancestors; to absorb the kinolau of education. To move from what I don’t know into the human I was uniquely designed to be, changing the world one heart at a time.
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