One Man's Change and my Grandpa's Hawaii

People change. It doesn't happen often, but when it does I feel like that in itself is a miracle. Individuals who lead the self-same lives one day like the other think, walk, talk, and act congruently. They perform familiar rituals and carry on, most times without opening new dimensions to themselves.

I don't really follow the man by news, but have only heard stories of his reputation. Rush Limbaugh recovered from a heart attack and had a change of heart. The advertiser read

"It's been a humbling experience," Limbaugh said. "All my life I've wondered what a heart attack would be like. I've experienced pain in my upper chest like I've never experienced before."

I have only read about him, personally, having seen nor heard his radio show but I like this. Perhaps he won't renunciate all his bias but... reader, you get what I mean, right? Enough of this.

(edit 01.16.2010; Rush is a total loser. In the face of death, fear crept over him, enough to make him continue his twisted media rampage. However, he hasn't fired a canon at health care yet, since his above claim)

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Note - will post up pictures later

The Big Island is the most sleepiest place I have ever seen, even more so than Maui. It's a time machine. It is a land untouched where the mood of an age has stood still, with the rest of the world plowing ahead; Hawaii lacks ambition, but its people are not at fault for it.

I saw where my grandfather was born - Hakalau. I saw the curving hills and the revamped land that was once acres and acres of sugar cane. I saw the unmaintained roads and magnificent bridges my grandpa would traverse upon with his fellow locals. I saw a time long past where walking 3-6 miles to school was nothing. I saw Kilauea, Mauna Kea, and Mauna Loa. I saw the rock walls constructed after the 1960 tsunami. I saw still waters and an abundance of pure nature - untamed, wild, and free. I felt the ocean breeze and gazed upon wave after wave smashing themselves upon rock, droplets reaching up toward the Sun, only to come back down and contribute to the practice over and over. I saw how friendly people can be. I saw how simple life could be. I saw how harmless it could be to be lawless. I saw the dangers of the Hawaiian's folly - their unwillingness to cooperate and focus on careful self-governance. All the alcohol and drugs, I saw that too. For one moment, humans can be God. They can see everything, once they just open themselves up to this land, where ambition is granted to the ones see pebbles and think boulders. The Sun shines down through the slits between the familiar, yet exotic leaves and creates a beam so beautiful that all you thought before ends with an emptiness of mind - awe

Having grown up there and left to go to the mainland cities and the wreckage of buildings through France and Nazi Germany, we can only imagine how open grandpa was, like a plant, photosynthesizing all this... all these experiences, all this news of war, peace, money, business, the Soviets, etc. I think I finally understand him, at most 90%. For his stoic nature, one would never guess that he, a man of simplicity, could go through all this and at the end of it all, wind up here. What if he were to have ended up farther away? His instincts told him to return at the end of the war, but not the Big Island. He wanted something different for his family. He knew his family would need Oahu, just as he needed it. He knew, in a sense, that the time of simplicity for Hawaii would come to end.

The Big Island has high unemployment, like everywhere else, and the standard of living very high. Rich enclaves, tourist traps, and luxury hotels/shops have invaded the island, driving up property values. But it is almost invisible, once you realize that the Big Island is BIG. You could literally live off the land (the hippies have already done so) Plus, the locals and "other" are separated. There is hardly any inter-meshing with classes there. Hilo and co. is separated from Waimea, Kohala, and Kona. The houses aren't so built up as they are here. The land is still perpetuated by some sacredness in those that respect it. Pele has her tantrums but even she knows too. Even she knows too. The purpose of this trip was for all of us to have a good time and for grandpa to show me where he was born and raised. I'm so grateful and happy for him. He was happy to be back. He reminisced about all these places long gone, the life that was, and enjoyed seeing the now.

Mahalo Hawaii, mahalo grandpa

Malama Pono