I decided to take my Chemistry homework with me to a Starbucks in Hilo. I sat across from this thin white bearded gentleman in his late 40s who was reading the comics of a local newspaper. Its still hard to determine who's native who's not, and with his backpack, Hawaiian shirt, and hiking boots, seemed like he could be a tourist. He and I struck up a conversation. I don't know how it started, but he proceeded to tell me about his many adventures...
He travels between Hawaii and Alaska - his home of over 14 years. He left home after his father died in his late teens and traveled the country. He would call himself a recluse - someone who's comfortable being by himself in God's country.
He bought a couple of acres of semi-arid land near one of Pele's lava flows and farms fruit trees. He used to be a captain of a boat, and also held a pilots license. For many years he worked in many capacities on board fishing vessels, and early on research vessels which were taking topographical readings of the Chilean trench. His many adventures took him all over South America and to the Arctic.
He told me of his vivid hiking adventures on this island - his foibles, accidents, and adventures with nature, and of chance encounters with other hikers, some of whom he became great friends with. He told me where to go to get equipment in town - an army surplus store in Hilo. He shared his adventures with acupuncture and with western medicine. We had many laughs on innumerable subjects including the problems with fitting in he's having with his native born Hawaiian neighbor who will always consider anyone non-Hawaiian with disdain - a Haole - white foreigner. His other neighbors he has a great time with, and mentioned a couple who are enjoying their retirement and growing medicinal plants in their back yard for person use. He waxed painfully about his new neighbors in the neighborhood who bulldozed a three-ace lot, to proudly build a Mc Mansion.
He told me about a place to visit while in Hilo - Health Works Under the Banyan - run by a couple who have undertaken to start a vegan restaurant and to start culinary classes on training people to grow their own food, and to cook vegan meals. He went on to say "They are such a wonderful couple, but they're quirky... well, you see.. er-hrm.. they're Seventh-day Adventists" he said with cautious trepidation. I knew immediately what he meant and professed to have been brought up one, and proceeded to tell him that I'd now call myself a Seventh-day Adventist Buddhist. He then in recognition proceeded to profess himself as a Seventh-day Adventist Taoist. The hubris of the universe is unmatchable by the best of comedians.
After telling me more stories of his experiences living in cultures such as in New Zealand, Tasmania, an in Alaska - he told me that no other places has he experienced such true hospitality to complete strangers as in those places and lamented that neighborly bartering and trading no longer taking place in many places around the world. Tourism and the lure of westernization is crippling people's communities, traditions, hospitality and friendliness.
Of the two basic needs of a human being we agreed: love of nature, and love of other human beings.
After nearly 4 hours of talks, I was getting extremely hungry, and we both excused each other with a handshake and parting words for thanks for the great conversation.
His stories definitely inspire me to really take on hiking and reading in the absolute wilderness of nature - to let my thoughts settle and to restore some peace and tranquility before I begin my schooling.
My time to do this is running out. If I'm to do it for more than 3 days, I will need to do it soon - before school starts. I'm doubtful that work will let me disappear for a week again, so I'll have to discover what I should attempt to do, where, and for how long.
John recommended a whole series of paths along Volcano National Forest upper trail, as well as the coastal route - where he mentioned his favorite fishing holes, fresh water tide pools, and Hawaii camping cuisine - which mostly consist of hunting for fish and other creatures using a Hawaiian spear, cooking and seasoning appropriately :)
Apparently the basic ingredients require limes (for preservation disinfection and flavor), garlic (for the obvious), salt, cyan pepper, and dill.
"Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after."
--Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Quotes...
I found a pretty large collection of quotes today linked from an ex-coworker's page. I picked out my favorites and decided to include them here as a personal reminder of things to not forget:
"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do."
--Henry Ford
"Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."
--William Jennings Bryan
"Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length."
--Robert Frost
"I dream, therefore I become."
--Cheryl Grossman
"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."
--Will Rogers
"Remember that happiness is a way of travel - not a destination."
--Roy M. Goodman
"Be life long or short, its completeness depends on what it was lived for."
--David Starr Jordan
"Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening."
--Dorothy Sarnoff
"The greatest conflicts are not between two people but between one person and himself."
--Garth Brooks
"Worry is a misuse of imagination."
--Dan Zadra
"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one."
--Elbert Hubbard
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."
--Bill Cosby
"He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever."
--Chinese Proverb
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."
--Henry David Thoreau
"I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief."
--Gerry Spence
"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."
--Walter Bagehot
"Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem."
--Henry Kissinger
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'WOW What a Ride!'"
--Unknown
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
--Mark Twain
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3 comments:
here's my favorite, because I think it's a great reminder and indicative of your great new adventure and how much that impacts those around you. :)
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
~~Marianne Williamson
I love it. Thanks for sharing with the world. (From an earlier post) What became of your print. The story reminds me of printmaking: lithography and intaglio, during my days at Univ. of Maryland. Hope all is well... Love, Steve Sillers
Hey Steve!
Thanks for your comment on my blog! I managed to sell my print to a collector of Peter Lik photography who lived in Virginia. It was good to recoup its value and have some money for my trip. Still, I will miss it :)
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