Fill It Up Then Discard It

The brain is an interesting container. A baby’s brain starts to fill from the moment of birth, maybe even before that. He or she learns an incredible amount in just a few short years.

An adult brain continues to gain knowledge as long as the synapses keep connecting.

Then we die. That brain that’s been collecting information for 80 or 90 years gets buried or burned.

That doesn’t seem fair, does it?

Or is that really the end of that brain’s life?

Maybe reincarnation is real and maybe upon death our brains are transported to another planet and become part of a new life. A baby born on another planet starts life with a brain full of everything his or her brain learned on Earth. That could explain the theory about possible advanced civilizations on other worlds. Those people are merely our people starting over at a higher level on the knowledge scale.

That kid designs nuclear reactors for homework in K1 and goes on from there.

Some 1st grader on Planet Europa that’s born with my brain wins the Earth Music Trivia Bee in 1st grade by correctly identifying the Beatles’ “Eight Days A Week” after hearing one note. Or the Earth Cars in Mid 20th Century Bee because he could tell the difference between a 1967 Mustang and a 1968 Mustang by seeing a picture of the steering wheel.

Little known fact about me: I didn’t finish college. I often consider going back and getting a degree, even though I’m old enough to be the professor’s father and a diploma would do nothing to make my eventual retirement any more pleasant. Yet there is some force pulling me in the direction of filling my brain. I don’t know why.

I read a lot of books. Novels are in the mix but mostly I dig through biographies or history books. I also read newspapers, magazines and web sites. I know a little about a lot and can hold my own in a conversation with just about anybody.

I enthusiastically and consistently fill my brain but I’m not really sure why. Maybe that kid on Planet Europa really needs to know that the exact like that Bogart says in “Casablanca” is “you played it for her, you can play it for me.”

Fill ‘er up.