I learned at an early age
That the best way to teach
Is simply to tell the truth
This is what iʻve always tried to do with you
And isnt that the point of moʻolelo
To share something real
That might resonate
That might make change
That you might find truth in too
And so My kupuna believe
Truth comes from darkness
From pō
They say
Comes ʻoiaʻio
The truth is
I’ve been struggling
Knowing this.. I guess I could say that these days
I feel saturdated in truth
Sometimes I wake realizing
I am not quite ready to imagine legacy
The dance from child to sibling to parent
Of a generation of schoalrs who will supass and outlive me
Thankfully
But this again is a part of the practice of being worthy of teaching
This was always a part of the duty
Recently, A friend reminded me
That before I was born I agreed to the life laid before me
So here I am
Weaving baskets of moʻolelo
Preparing to carry you in
Like my kupuna and kumu did for me
But whats the truth?
Sometimes kuleana is heavy
Kaumaha
Sometimes it marks the body in black ink
Sometimes it bleeds through the skin
Sometimes I forget the right way to carry it
To walk under it
To speak in my own voice
Sometimes I am ashamed
Of the ways I do not live up yo my own names
Other times
I feel graditude for all the smalls waYS YOU ALL HAVE FORGIVEN ME
IN SMILES, IN WIRTING
IN YOUR OWN SOLLILOQUIS
Filling THE spaces I didnt quite know how to dance in
For all the ways you forgive me for all I am lacking
The truth is I have spent 24 years preparing for these momenets
To read and write and talk about the truth with you
The truth is
I was born to the greatst kumu who ever lived
My father
And his
And mothers moving on for generataions
And an ʻāina and moana that has loved me beyond my own meaaasure
I have been given more moʻolelo then I could ever deserve
Than I could ever carry
And here I am
At the precipice of a moment
Meant to understand my own function
Standing before you
With more questions than answers
In a time where our lack of understanding has the gravest consequesnces
And most of the time
The truth is
I fail to do it all justice
So instead
Here is the lesson I should have led with
When I was a child
Moʻolelo was the most intimate gift to be offered
It meant you were worthy
It meant you were loved
It meant you were cherished
It meant I want to offer you my eyes
For you to see a bit of this world like I do
For a moment
In complicated fashion
But with aloha for everything around you
And so the truth?
I wonder most nights
That even if I wasnt the best version of myself this semester
If you still got to hold the magic
Still got to sit in awe and wonder
For this moʻolelo you are now a part of
And always have been
2000 generations in the making
As old as a sea of islands
Still growing
I wonder
If you were moved
If we were moved
If we can continue to move those around us who fail to see what we do
So If nothing else I hope you
Remember these truths
Remember the gifts of bravery and imagining
That we stand on the shoulders of giants
That everything that has ever been done
Was once impossible
And the only way we know
All the amazing tranformations that it can be done
Is because someone somewhere carried the moʻolelo
And loved someone enough to share it
Like I have hopefully done
With you
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