Thanksgiving vs. Christmas

I love Thanksgiving.  It's my favorite holiday.  I think that, in spirit (if you ignore the whole slaughtering of Native Americans thing), Thanksgiving is the purest holiday.  It's all about family, friends, good food, and taking stock of what's important in your life.  It's a holiday that genuinely makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

So I have to confess that I get angry every year that Thanksgiving is more and more overlooked.  As soon as the Halloween decorations come down, the Christmas decorations go up.  The commercials start on TV; the Christmas music gets played in the stores.  The pressure to BUY ramps up about 200%.  

Frankly, I find it sickening.  I realize that Thanksgiving isn't a "consuming" holiday in the sense that it's not really a holiday one buys a lot of stuff for.  I know that this is why American businesses try to rush us straight from Halloween into Christmas every year.  This is what makes it particularly disgusting to me.

Let's ignore the holiday that encourages us to reflect on what makes our lives special in order to BUY things?  What kind of message is that?

I was hoping that I might get away from some of this in Hawaii.  It certainly seems to be outside of a lot of the bad influences of the mainland in a lot of ways.  People are kinder and more trusting here.  They have a a different view on life and what's important.  So I thought maybe this would be different too.  I have, however, been sadly disappointed.  I guess, no matter where you live, you still deal with the same companies, the same chains; they make a cookie cutter life for everyone.

But they can't force me to spend nearly two months celebrating Christmas. They can't suck meaning from me.  I'm going to live life on my own terms.

And I Saw Stars

We started meeting people lately, and that has resulted in two of the more awe-inspiring things I've seen recently on Maui.

First, a couple of evenings ago, I was driving to Kihei to meet some folks for a drink.  On my way there, I was caught between a little rainstorm on one side, and the sun on the other.  Thus ensued the most stunning rainbow I've ever seen in my life.

I truly understand why the rainbow is the symbol of the islands now.  This was a full-on, spectacularly bright spectacle that I could see from one end to the other.  I'd never seen a full rainbow before.  I couldn't capture the whole thing in a picture.  Unfortunately, the pictures that I did take with my phone did not do the phenomenon justice.

It honestly lifted my spirits and made my heart light.

Second, last night, we were invited to an event at Camp Pi'iholo in Makawao, which is upcountry.  I'm rather fond of Makawao and the surrounding countryside.  It rains more up there than where we live, giving it more of the rainforest atmosphere that I know and love from the Pacific NW.

The camp was nice, and so reminiscent of home.  But it's the stars that were truly astounding. You can see a lot of stars from where we live, but we still suffer from quite a bit of light pollution.  Up in Makawao, it feels like you can see the whole universe.  We had gone there for a Halloween party the night before as well, and had spent much of our time looking up.  The things you can see with the naked eye up there - it's hard to comprehend!  I never could have guessed that some day I would be living somewhere where I could merely look up and see a whole galaxy.

As an aside, we also happened to go on a star gazing cruise this week.  The event was facilitated by an astronomy expert who used a microphone to relay facts to the participants and ask them questions.  During a series of questions she asked, I loudly whispered joking, funny answers to my husband that were meant to amuse him.  However, the young man of the couple sitting next to us started shouting out my answers for all to hear, as if he were the one who came up with them!

While I was flattered that he thought my jokes funny enough to share, I found the whole thing frankly somewhat bizarre.  I mean, I was sitting right there and could clearly hear what he was doing.  I guess some people are just incapable of coming up with their own original thoughts.

Golf and Letting Go

We went to the LPGA tournament out at Kapalua Resort today.  It's not something I normally would have been into, but Hubby got the tickets free from work, and I thought it might be interesting to do something new and different.

We decided to take the "back road" there, which goes around the NW corner of the island.  It's a very narrow road - one lane in some places - winding, and barely paved for part of the way.  I love the roads like this that you find here.  The views of the ocean were stunning.  I'm in awe of and perplexed by the people that live out there in these huge homes, totally isolated from other people.  I wonder why they seek such solitude?

One of the things I like about Maui is how it incorporates all these different climates on this one small island.  You have the very jungle-like climate (what I think most people imagine Hawaii to be like), and you have places that are more like the rain forests of the Pacific NW.  There's the beach climate, and areas that are more desert-y.  We discovered a new one today out on that road.  I don't even know what to call it, but I've seen it in pictures.  It was like this mountainous farmland.  Just beautiful.

The tournament itself was actually pretty fun.  I don't know much about golf and typically find it boring.  But I think all sports are better live.  We got to see some of the famous golfers - Annika Sorenstam, Laura Davies, Christy McNichol.  I never realized before how impressive it is, what golfers do.  They hit those balls incredibly far!  The sound was a lot louder than I'd anticipated.

I like it over there in Kapalua.  I wish we were rich so we could live there.

I've been thinking a lot today about letting go.  I've been pretty hung up on Portland and missing it.  I know that my friends back there, and what I knew as my life, are all moving on.  I can feel it happening.  I know that it's something I need to do as well.

I was reflecting on a couple of past break ups I had and how I made myself mix tapes to help me move on.  It might be time to make a "letting go" CD.  I don't know that these things actually help.  But maybe it would help me get "in the mood," so to speak.  I don't think I can fully embrace life in Hawaii until I give up life in Portland.

Island Fever

Before moving to Hawaii, I heard a lot about island fever.  People from the mainland, I was told, rarely last long.  Couple years at most, and then the island fever gets to them, and they move back.  No one ever explained to me what island fever is, though.  And now I wonder if I'm suffering from it.

I find Hawaii very....monotonous.  Everything is always the same.  It starts with the weather.  Sunny and warm every day.  You'd think that anyone would love it, but for some reason it's really getting to me.  I get up every morning, see the sun, and feel depressed.  It's probably not the sun itself.  If I woke up every morning for 3 months and it was cloudy, that would depress me too.  It's the lack of variation.

My days are the same too.  I get up and go to work.  My job is monotonous and boring.  I come home and settle in for the evening.  I watch TV, or I play around on the Internet.  Maybe I read a book.  We usually try to go out and do things on the weekend.  Sometimes we try to do things during the week.  But mostly it's the same thing, day after day.

I know that it's partly my fault.  I need to keep putting myself out there.  I need to keep finding things to do.  And I am trying.  There's just something about monotony and boredom that's very paralyzing.  As much as I want to spice up my life, there is this part of me that is working against myself, for some reason.  I'm afraid of something, although I haven't figured out what that is.

I do want to give Hawaii a fair chance.  Sometimes it feels like things will never get better.  I've always hated making new friends.  I feel like I'm not very good at it.  I know that having some friends would definitely make me feel better, though.  This week has been tough.  But I'm going to get back on the horse and try again.  It's the only thing I can do.

Political Chatter

In general, Hawaii doesn't seem to be a place that's particularly into politics.  Maybe it just seems that way because I came here from Portland, where constant chatter about politics is the norm.  I mean, there are, of course, the requisite political signs in yards here, and supporters waving along the side of the road.  And I have to admit that the debate between the candidates running for mayor of Honolulu that I accidentally caught on TV was one of the most heated and least polite I've ever seen.

But political chat around the water cooler is non-existent.  And people just don't really seem to talk about it in their day-to-day lives.  Maybe it's because I don't really have any friends yet.  I'm used to talking about politics all the time.  At work, with friends, at my volunteer jobs.  So maybe once I make some friends, it will come up in conversation more.  Or maybe not.  Maybe in Portland I was just in a hyper-charged political environment, and now I'm not.

It's not that I mind so much.  It's just weird.  It's different, like everything here.

Although, I suppose that Hawaii has been a liberal, Democratic state for so long that the outcomes of elections don't seem to be in much question.  The Republicans are starting to get a foothold.  I think that's largely due to the fact that they're new and different, after some 50-odd years of Democrats.  But it's not a strong foothold.  There is no question, for example, that Obama will win here.  So really, what is there to talk about?

Last night we went to the movies.  Hubby was wearing his "Mario Luigi '08" t-shirt.  The young lady who sold us our tickets looked at his shirt and said, "I'd vote for them."  We chuckled and she added, "Anybody would be better than McCain."  We chuckled again and moved on.

When I thought about it later, I found it interesting that she felt comfortable enough to share her opinion openly like that.    I wonder how much of it was due to Hawaii's inherent liberalness.  Or maybe we just don't look like McCain voters.  Whatever it was, it was nice to hear someone's opinion.

The Big Island

I went to the Big Island for one day this past weekend to visit a friend.  It's a fascinating place, very different from Maui - or at least, very different from where I live on Maui.

I was outside of Hilo, in an area that was very jungle-like.  It was fascinating, this completely foreign world.  It reminded me of Vietnam War movies.  The plants grow huge there.  I thought of my small, potted hibiscus plants on the balcony at home and tried to reconcile that vision with the fist-sized hibiscus I saw growing outside of the place where we stopped for smoothies.

On our walk out to Akaka Falls, I saw many flowers that looked like they were from some alien planet.  Honestly, I just couldn't get over it.  I'm Michigan born and bred, and have never lived in any other climate that's much different from that until now.  While I have often been chided by my friends for a lack of love for the outdoors, it's not that I don't appreciate them.  I just like my creature comforts.  I am awed by the beauty of this earth, though.  I don't know how anyone could not be moved by the wonders of Hawaii.

When I went to bed, there was a gecko on the wall.  Now, I've seen geckos outside of houses on Maui.  I've even heard them in my office.  But I've never seen them inside.  I have to admit that I was pretty freaked out by it.  I hate creepy crawlies, mostly for two reasons:  I can't stand the way they "scuttle" and I hate the thought that they might be crawling on me while I'm sleeping.  I realize that geckos aren't creepy crawlies, but it did scuttle when it realized I saw it, and that's what freaked me out.  I'm sure it found a safe place to hide as soon as I turned out the light.  Later, in the morning, I was ashamed, and wished that I had taken a picture of it.

As I left, the air on the Big Island was hazy from the vog of an erupting volcano ("vog" is the local term for fog-like conditions created by volcanic ash).  It was clear when I landed on Maui, but the vog rolled in later in the afternoon, the thickest I've seen it yet.  Our view of the valley below and the mountain beyond it was completely obliterated.  The vog stayed through this morning, when I took an eerie, blurry picture of the sun.

I really liked the Big Island and hope that I can go back some time for more exploration.  So far, though, I'm glad that we ended up on Maui.

Murder on Lanai

Last week there was a murder-suicide over on Lanai.  A man killed the wife who was divorcing him and then turned the gun on himself, leaving their 5 children orphaned.  It's a story I've read about all too often lately, over and over again.  I'll never understand what makes a person think it's okay to kill someone just because they dare to break off a relationship with them.  I'll never understand why they think it's okay to desert their children, to leave them to grow up with the knowledge of what one of their parents did, to leave them to always wonder why.

Violent crime is relatively rare in Hawaii.  We live in Paradise, after all.  Everything here is filled with "aloha."  Drivers are more polite.  People are friendly.  Things move at a slower pace.  I don't hear shouting from the streets every night like I did when I lived in Portland.  It's always sunny, always warm.  It's hard to imagine that in the midst of this, there was a family in turmoil.

They say that Maui is a small island - everybody knows everybody sooner or later.  I experienced this myself when my husband and I went to a bar this weekend and I ran into one of the approximately 5 people that I know on the island so far.  Lanai is even smaller.  So I wonder, did people know?  The other family members, the neighbors, teachers, friends?  Did they know that this family was in turmoil?  Or were there no warning signs that things were about to tragically explode?

Details in the Maui News were scant.  Neighbors said that the family was nice, that they knew of no problems, that they were shocked.  I wonder, how well do we know each other, even in a small community such as this?  How can you really ever know another person or what they are capable of?

Tragedy is, of course, sad, no matter who or when or where it strikes.  But it seems particularly sad in this beautiful place, especially when there was so much left behind.  I hope that someone good and kindhearted gets to keep those poor orphaned children.  I hope that they don't grow up haunted by this terrible act of violence.  And I hope that they can grow up still knowing love and aloha.