I feel like some things are only really real when you see them for the first time. They’re still there the second time and the time after that, maybe even before no time at all, but they’re especially real the first time.
The first time I held a brain (don’t worry, I had gloves on!) everything that I’ve been learning about, ever since I first started to realize what learning was, became real. My eyes became childlike and my hands eager to hold because I saw what is such an integral part of what makes us who we are. That brain was everything to some person that I’ll never know because he’s not here anymore, maybe in spirit and maybe in stories, but he’s not here. But he used to be. And everything he ever thought and every emotion he ever felt and everything he ever did came from what I was holding in my hands. And after holding someone’s brain who had decades of years over me and most likely far more wisdom, I became a child. And it all became real.
For those of you on the other side of the screen wondering what it felt like, it was squishy, but it was also very firm. It was pink and all the “wrinkles” that you see in pictures were there. By the way, those wrinkles have names, and I have to know them. But that’s aside from the point. The whole while I was staring at it and holding it in my childlike hands, I could not keep away the mesmerization that I had this same structure in my head and that it was responsible for everything I do, too. Things got even more confusing when I realized that my whole focus of learning centers around thinking with your mind about your brain. And in this instance, I was thinking with my mind about brains while holding one in my hands. It can be a little overwhelming to think about, even more so than reading about it.
So be a little more explorative and a little more inquisitive and when you have the chance to hold something that you’ve been wanting to see for maybe longer than you knew, take the chance. It is so worth transforming into a child again and having everything be shiny and new.
eloquentnostalgia 