Happy thoughts of home--Hawaii--have been wandering through my mind these past few days. Exactly a year from now, I'll be there celebrating my [REDACTED] Reunion. Just got my best friend (since we were 9 years old!) to swear she'll attend, since the big luau falls on my birthday. (She lives in Switzerland now, so she's missed the last few.) blue jersey mom is doing archaeology on Maui this summer. I love the thought of a wonderful fellow Kossack helping to conserve Hawaiian history, while getting to explore such a special place.
And a Kossack, whom we all haven't seen in many moons, came back a few days ago. I was genuinely happy to see him...for reasons you might not expect. Even more unexpected? We ended up discussing a core Hawaiian value last night: ho'oponopono, "setting things right."
Because without his knowing it, this non-Hawaiian man had initiated this deeply significant process of healing and restoring harmony. Between him and me. Right here on dKos, before he left last year. It is something I never forgot.
This Kossack and I had once gotten into the silliest spat--much ado about nothing--which grew inexplicably unpleasant. After some time had passed, he then apologized and began making things right between us. No need to review specifics here. But the sincerity and genuineness of that process resonated powerfully with me, then and now. In part because it stands in such sharp contrast to the "talking at" and "talking past" each other tone into which so many "discussions" here recently have seemed to devolve. The needless demonizing of allies. The crazy personalizing of political differences.
But mainly it meant so much because of this: I just realized, after this Kossack reappeared this week, that what happened resonated deeply because he had engaged in ho'oponopono. Without knowing it, he had tapped into my strong need to be connected to the values that I'm mostly at a loss to find here on the mainland.
Ho'oponopono is a process, most commonly used within a family, to heal and restore harmony. Last night, he and I had a heartfelt discussion about it, and about other things going on in our lives. For the first time in what seems like forever, engaging in an extended thread on dKos felt relaxing. Felt hopeful. Joyful, even.
Two humans had moved beyond the bitter moment in their past, to supporting each other as people. Whether or not they agreed on every point of politics or policy. Food for thought, perhaps, for others here?
I'm not an anthropologist, and lack the deep knowledge I wish I had about how pre-contact Hawaiian society functioned. (Hawaiian history education was woeful in my day; it is MUCH improved today.) But for the ancient Hawaiians, the high value placed on harmony, within the family and within society, was not just a tool for authoritarian chiefs and priests to enforce their rule more easily. Everyone's survival depended on the gifts of the land and the sea. That meant working together to treat the 'aina (land) with respect and manage nature's resources responsibly.
Harmony, in other words, made sense.
Ho'oponopono is just one of many core Hawaiian practices that could teach us a lot. That could help us a lot, even in this ultra-technological era. Exploring this topic beautifully is George Hu'eu Sanford Kanahele's amazing, groundbreaking book Ku Kanaka: A Search for Hawaiian Values (1986). In the Foreword, Kenneth Brown summarizes Kanahele's mission, and his achievement:
"Kanahele analyze[s]...the central values and beliefs upon which the Hawaiian culture was based. Then he traces the passage through history of those values and beliefs down to the present time. And he sets out an agenda for us to follow which will enable us to benefit today from the truths which our Hawaiian ancestors lived by yesterday...
He offers us...the discovery that their ways and beliefs and values still carry the power, the mana, to serve us well today."
Time for a deep re-read of Kanahele's book from me. Time to recenter my ways and values closer to home. My priorities have never strayed. My practices? Perhaps. Probably.
As we see almost incomprehensible devastation unfold in the Gulf of Mexico,the imminent destruction of the way of life for three Native American tribes does not merit even a blip on the MSM radar. Maybe part of our soul-searching should be this: What do the First Peoples--of the mainland, Alaska and Hawaii--have to teach us? Is there something we might want to stop and learn before continuing Western "civilization's" 500-year path of destruction?
My gift to you, for putting up with these musings: An excerpt of Hapa's lovely version of the classic Olomana song, Ku'u Home O Kahalu'u, featuring some eye candy pix from Maui. Everyone wave to blue jersey mom on Maui!
Wishing ho'oponopono for us all, in our individual lives, and as a dKos community...
Aloha pumehana kakou,
earicicle
UPDATE, 2 am Eastern: Good night, all...have to be up early to take one of my feline keiki to the vets. Wrote this on a whim, and I'm grateful to have so many friends stop by. So far, it looks like navajo and I are on for a good old-fashioned throwdown: who can eat more crazy, scare-the-mainlanders, Hawaiian foods. begone and I are having blackened ahi at Roy's next year; fine wine for her, G&T for me. And Christin has the first booking as houseguest at my Molokai or Lanai second home, whenever hubby-to-be-named-later & I purchase one!
I'll leave you with some lyrics from "Ku'u Home O Kahalu'u," the song I posted above:
Change is a strange thing,
It cannot be denied.
It can help you find yourself,
Or make you lose your pride...
Last night I dreamt I was returning,
And my heart called out to you.
To please accept me as you find me
Me ke aloha ku'u home o Kahalu'u. (With love, my beloved home of Kahalu'u.)
Mahalo, and good night,
ear
UPDATE THE SECOND, 240a: Okay, I really have to get to bed now. But one more song before I go. From a man whose music still brings us harmony and healing, so many years after he left us, far too soon: Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Bruddah Iz.