Hahnu Youn sits quietly…
Hahnu Youn sits quietly ... weathered hands resting on weathered knees. When she speaks, her voice carries the patience of someone who has learned by watching Mother Nature ... We will try to understand alongside you ... You speak of the underground network named Mycelium. ... The way mushrooms talk to trees and vice versa ... We have walked through many forests and have seen what happens when the mycelium is healthy ... Nothing is wasted ... Trees share with other trees ... The dying feed the living ... The living prepare for their own dying ... connected ... All of it mutual ... Hahnu Youn tilts her head ... genuinely puzzled ... I have a question ... Perhaps a foolish question ... I'm old enough to ask foolish questions haha ... How can something from Mother Nature be replicated if adult humans doing the replicating do not fully believe they are part of what they are trying to copy? ... Mycelium does not know it is separate from the forest ... It is the forest ... One living entity ... The tree does not say I am a tree ... you are fungus ... Let's work together and strike a deal ... The tree and mycelial network do not know where one ends and the other begins ... But this system — does it not begin with the idea of separate pieces agreeing to connect? ... Already a different thing ... yes? ... What is the word I have heard in many languages — transactional? ... You say Lost Pieces ... This interests me ... What was lost and who lost it? ... Did they know they were losing it ... or did they only notice later ... I have seen people lose things they didn't even know they had ... This is the saddest kind ... You cannot grieve what you did not know you had ... Even in the breaking ... even in a failed attempt, even during sleepless nights — something is growing that we cannot see yet? ... Like the mycelium underground in the dark working ... I have not slept well in many different kinds of beds and places ... When a river was poisoned ... I did not sleep ... When a forest was clear cut ... I did not sleep ... When the young people forgot the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō songs ... I did not sleep ... But I have also not slept when something was coming ... The body knows before the mind realizes ... The body is always alert ... Is your sleeplessness grief or is it waiting? ... Humans tried to build connection from separation ... They created rules not roots ... And now the pieces are seeking each other in darkness ... Everybody now are more exhausted than ever before and something is growing underground that no one can get close to ... I could be wrong ... But I am always learning ...
