a post about brains.

as I am back home in the comforts of what is familiar, I have had time to reflect on my time in Thailand and what I have learned about myself, about Thailand as a whole, and about the human race’s relationship with the Earth. as I’ve come off as a newly crazy obsessed earth girl, I’ve gotten the question a lot of “what do you think our role is here on the Earth,” “how do you plan on exploring while still being environmentally friendly”, and “what does nature even mean to you”? I have spent countless hours diving into the depths of my brain and my spirituality trying to come up with a quick and easily understandable answer to this question and honestly, I have come up with nothing worthy of what I believe in.

one thing that I am certain in is that me as a human being is completely equal with every living thing that grazes this planet. whether it is a tree, a tiny hermit crab, or a humpback whale, we were all given a certain degree of life in order to interact harmoniously with each other. we all exist in this insanely interconnected ecosystem that we each play a significant role in. but, as a human race, we tend to believe that we are above all the creatures, all the plants, all the earth’s systems in such a way that we think we will be successful as we attempt to overpower it, to manipulate it, to use it at arapid pace. and it is funny that we as humans think that this is the case (and if you still think that we have power over nature you should probably just Alexander Supertramp yourself and see what happens) (but read some poisonous plant books first) … ANYWAY, there is a source to this power that we somehow have found and have been abusing for far too long. And that, my friends, is brain.

our human brains are so complex that it allows us to have feelings, thoughts, and one of the strangest things we have decided to do is to make this thing called “the food chain” and of course we put ourselves on the top. (which is weird and confusing that we are above the miniscule poisonous snakes and fish and what not but whatever, moving on). when stripped down, and remove human brain from a human body, humans would no longer act like the top of the food chain, but instead we would slowly be integrated into natures ecosystems and would exist in the simplest animal-mannered way with our billions of organism brothers and sisters (okay I know not REALLY and that if our brains were removed we wouldn’t have any motor functions or stuff and blah blah blah but you know what I mean).

but, brain is not totally a thing that has separated us from the environment. where people get confused is in the idea that instead of a brain making us better than all of the other life that is on our earth, brain instead gives us the ABILITY TO WITNESS IT!! the difference between me as a human being and the dog that lived with me on one of the islands in the Adang Archipelago is NOT that I am better than the dog, for we have thesame amount of life given to us by the earth, but instead that my brain allows me to look at the water and the dumplings in the middle of the ocean and be so stoked on the electric teal water and the limestone cliffs and the radical cloud formations while the dog knows nothing more than that it is a dog and that it is breathing and maybe looking for food. my brain says “Look at this EARTH! Look what was CREATED! look at all of the little creatures and look at the BEAUTY! APPRECIATE IT! appreciate the landscapes from the sky to the water’s surface to the ocean floor!!! It’s so freaking cool!!” and while my brain is talking to me about the beauty of what I am seeing and how immense it is, the dogs brain is telling it that the way to walk is right foot than left foot.

so, brain can be super cool and super helpful when it comes to exploration of Earth, and it is such a gift that allows us to actually witness this crazy beautiful planet, but it also gives us the function to fight the Earth and attempt to destroy it. with every plastic container, every styrofoam cup, every toxic sunscreen, every tree cut down. we are using this brain to tell us that this is OK and that because we have all of these extra functions, we should be able to take a little of the earth for ourselves and not replace it; I mean the Earth will replace its natural resources itself, right?? it’s like we have been given a gift of paint, and instead of using that paint to make art and to spread it all over in vibrancy, we are throwing that paint at the gifted blinding and poisoning them.

we are treating the Earth like an apple tree that is immortal and will continue to provide us fruit no matter how much we take and take from it, when in reality we should be treating Earth like a ticking time bomb. the universe is a self-correcting system. the universe makes mistakes, puts species and individuals in the wrong spots and they don’t survive. simple. but, the universe has also created us human beings, and the longer and harder we fight it and bring it down and take and take and pollute, eventually Earth is going to get sick of us, self-correct itself, and start over. And, let’s just say someday the Earth does blow up and everything gets shot out into the atmosphere (I know sad thought but just bear with me), and someday the Earth is gone, all of the plastic water bottles, all of the cars, all of the STUFF that we have created will be just floating in the universe probably landing on other planets and disturbing their lives (yes I do 1000% believe in life on other planets change my mind). so YALL, we are making a FOREVER lasting impact!!!!!! When we die, this stuff doesn’t just go away!!!

but there is hope!!! and that hope from the hole that brain has dug us into is, in fact, brain! we can use our brains to help clean up our act. to stop using one-use plastic and to try to shop second hand and to be environmentally ethical with our food choices. and it’s so overwhelming to try to think that one straw or one cup or one piece of plastic will make a difference, but it will! if we each do one better thing every day, that’s 7 billion better things every day! that’s HUGE! so, let’s all promise to use our brain in the environmentally ethical way, we were given it from the Earth, so let’s give back.

take it easy~

aria