It’s like we know. Somewhere deep in our bodies. Head. Heart. Guts. Groin. Beyond feeling. Deeper than thinking. We know. As close as we be to the earth, to where we were born. The people who brought us up. The ones we are around day to day. As close as all that is to us, we are still aliens in one sense. We are just passing through. Our earth days are limiting and so brief in the context of the cosmos. 

So we are here. But where was the “I” we are, before we were born? Where? Where is that same I after we die. Is whatever is between birth and death all there is?

Every part of your being is controlled by your brain.

You know how there are some people you just seem to vibe with? Are their brains similar to your brain? In some strangely fundamental, or essential way, are the people you vibe with, are they your twin?

Sometimes I hear stuff that makes me think of other stuff. Could be a random sound. Could be some music. Could be a woman who takes care of someone, or cleans someone’s house. It is early in the morning. Very early. She is walking to work. Coming down the street and singing to herself. A song she is just making up as she saunters along. Nothing special. Nothing she is remembering. It is music made in the now time. She has not heard it before. She will forget it as soon as she goes indoors. Like that.

There is so much. How much of the ordinary have we examined?

Which is all how I heard Ibeyi. I have been to Cuba. I have been to France. A couple of times. In both places. And I have come to understand I am not only my body. And deeper still, my body is porous and stuff comes to me. Goes thru me. And the world passing thru is a major part of what makes me be me.

It is amazing what we can think of when we allow ourselves to freely think. To have experiences. And reflect. Without judging.

But of course, we must decide. What to carry. What to leave behind. Yet we not only are what we are. We are also what we are not. What we decline to be, to see, to taste, whatever. What we decline to embrace nevertheless partially makes us be who we are. Our declination is not a rejection but rather a choice, and each choice shapes us.

Listen to Ibeyi. Their talk. Their music.

These twin sisters. Cuban father. French mother. Each parent with various heritages flowing through them. Listen how they manifest the mergers they are. The music they make.

Listen.