Ignorance: Alive and Doing Well in Sacramento

As soon as I took a seat in the waiting room, a man looked at me and this is our conversation:

Man: Where were you born?

Me: Born and raised in Hawaii.

Man: Hawaii. Those people are the most negative.

Me: Negative?

Man: In Hawaii, what do you say to people when you leave?

Me: Aloha?

Man: What do you say when you meet someone?

Me: Aloha?

Man began to explain his views on how these two words were soooo native-like and I wasn’t even in a grass skirt with a bone through my nose.

I was called in for my appointment so I looked at him and said, “Aloha.”

I wish I had said the following:

1. There’s another meaning of Aloha. We say Aloha when we want to say Butt Off, Idiot.
2. I was born on one of those newly found planets.
3. On a bed, on clean sheets.

 

Read Full Post »

Hawaii Calls

 

To my islands I return for a visit…the islands where:

 

Drivers toot their horns, show the shaka sign, or wave at you when you give them right of way or allow them to change lanes in front of you. We say “You’re Welcome” by tooting or waving back.

 

On the Hamakua Coast and the road to Volcano, drivers of large rigs will slow toward the side, toot their horns, and wave you on…telling you it’s safe to overtake.

 

Speed limit is 50 mph on highways

 

Local strangers at airports will give you their luggage carts and welcome you home as one man did at Honolulu Airport. He got another cart for himself.

 

McDonalds serves Portuguese sausage, eggs and rice.

 

Sales persons are accommodating with their Aloha and Mahalo and more conversations are based on who they are rather than on corporate guidelines.

 

There is that spirit of grace in the knowing silence that exists in this place where there are more listeners than talkers, more da kine connections and that relaxed atmosphere: ocean waves coming in to shore, palm trees moving in the breeze, people driving and walking a little bit slower. And that sense of humanity, Hawaiian style, that is still being preserved in the middle of the Pacific.

 

They somehow make me forget the vog, the humidity, the high prices and Hawaiian Air who won’t let me change my reservation.

Read Full Post »