Finished product?
I appreciate that the county repaved part of Kaumana Drive recently. But whoever painted the new yellow lines must have been intoxicated.
They are squiggly and jagged in places! I hope that’s not the finished product.
But mahalo for repaving.
A. Yamamoto
Hilo
Elusive aloha
I have lost most of my aloha, and I am worried it may take some time to get it back.
When I moved here eight years ago, I, like most people, wanted to start fresh. No, I did not change my name to Rainbow Sunflower or Moon Beam. But I found out I was running from myself, only to find myself again, here. So, my bag was to give time and money and effort and some modicum of social love.
Part of my meager contributions to the island included doing large murals for free and simply trying to fit in by way of giving time and energy to a few organizations. I actually believed I would get a pass if I acted up from time to time.
It is not uncommon for me to give possessions away, so others can have the trappings of what I have been blessed with. There is great wisdom in the Bible about throwing pearls to swine.
I was in the wrong place and mindset. Just because you do things and give things does not, in any way, mean you will be appreciated or respected. So, inner anger set in. I kept trying to be and stay aloha. I never wanted anything in return except maybe a teeny bit of gratitude. Well, I got that. But you’re only as good as your last gig, as a famous musician was quoted. Still, I tried to stay aloha.
But I failed miserably over time in my attempts to stay in an aloha state of mind and heart. I became the mainlander I hated. Over time, I found many people born and raised here share my tattered aloha, as well. Sadness. What is it, you might ask, prevented me from maintaining my aloha? Good question. Many of you can answer that question. The list is too long to type here.
So, now I embark upon a journey, here, again. I have to get my aloha back. There is too much apathy and disrespect for the land and fellow island dwellers, from what I observed. Most people I have met have done nothing insofar as volunteering or giving of time and energy to even pick up trash or dead animals on the road.
There is a very small mural in Hilo that blows all of my works away on the corner of Keawe Street and Furneaux Lane. It shows a half image of the little Lilo cartoon girl and the other half is the skeleton of her face and body.
To me, it says “do not lose your aloha” in a very sublime way. It is rather quite profound.
Aloha is something that can be lost, but you can gain it back. I have to write this letter because people are rapidly losing their aloha, both Hawaiian and haole alike.
Please help me regain my aloha by trying to recapture the aloha you, yourself, may already have lost. Without aloha, this is no home. Aloha is contagious. Being “un-aloha” is also contagious.
I won’t stop trying to forgive and give, and I hope it is thrown back my way. Aloha.
Allen Russell
Hilo