Monthly Archives: May 2011

This past Sunday morning at 2:30 a.m. I met a friend to drive to a locked gate at one of the entrances to the private property where the trail begins that leads under the H-3 freeway to the base of the Haʻikū ladder. The locked gate may prevent cars from entering but there is a well worn foot path around the side of it. While waiting for the others in our group to arrive, two groups came in to hike the stairs, which finally convinced me that this was not just a rude joke to get me out of bed at 2 a.m.! The reason for the early start is that a guard is posted at the foot of the latter to prevent people from going up. The guard used to start work at 5 a.m., but evidently when hikers figured that out and started coming earlier, he started coming an hour [Read More...]

It was less than two weeks ago that I, like many people, was stunned to hear on the ten o'clock news that Ka'au McKenney's body had been recovered near Makapu'u lighthouse. It made no sense but the picture they flashed on the screen was definitely him, blue eyes that made up half of his face, a big smile that made up the rest. 45 years young, still so much left to do. A friend of mine says you can tell whether someone's life was successful by how many people attend his or her funeral. An insightful but unnecessary measurement. I already knew I would be only one of the many, many people who attended the service for Ka'au yesterday and the scattering of his ashes this morning. Ka'au was a beautiful person and a genuine waterman, and what set him apart from others who are lucky enough to live their passions was [Read More...]

Fulcrum Publishing, which published the first edition of Every Day Is a Good Day in 2004, recently released a Memorial Edition of this beautiful book. The only differences appear to be a new cover design and the addition of a foreword by Louise Erdrich. Maybe that speaks to the fact that that no other changes could have added meaningfully to this already-perfect book. Since I am one of the women whose reflections are included in this book, my credibility may be questioned if I say too much about what a great book it is, so instead, I'll critique myself, which I'm very good at doing. I always cringe when I read what I have said in interviews but that is not so in this case. In part it may be because Wilma gave me a chance to revise my responses, which I did, but I think that is only a small part [Read More...]

The Kamafiki Crew, as we named ourselves, went on our first overnight sail this past Saturday, a moonless night so we could see stars. Basically there are six of us on this crew that means 'magic' in Samoan, according to Captain Buddy. It's a word he uses when something suddenly fixes itself or does what it's supposed to. None of us could find it in a Samoan dictionary and the one Tongan one of us asked had never heard of kamafiki. When you think about it, it makes sense that there wouldn't be such a word as magic, at least in a Polynesian cultural context, because magic is sorcery. Anyway... we liked the word. The six of us on this crew bonded from training for the Hokule'a world wide sail. We all pretty much started coming to classes at the same time last year and so became friends. Only four could make [Read More...]