Saturday, November 5, 2016

9/30/16 Tiny Bubbles Writers' Group (Honolulu)

Looking out at Waikiki Beach, an absolutely perfect picture-postcard afternoon.  Sunny with puffy white clouds, wave after wave carrying surfers shoreward, and the sail boats arriving and leaving, and the tourist ships arriving and leaving, and the airplanes arriving and leaving, and thousands of tourists arriving and leaving, and the university students arriving and leaving, and the birds and the fish and the warm trade winds are arriving and leaving.  Only the unseen constant is aware of all of this, because it is neither arriving nor leaving.  It is just always here, neither coming nor going, never changing from anything to anything at all.

     Visitors enter and leave the Jamba juice bar, with large cups of fresh squeezed local fruit juices, cold and refreshing, and then return to the beach with its carved statue of the Duke, surfer of surfers...the king!  Duke Kahanamoku used his circumstances of birth to develop into an immortal in the pantheon of the Hawaiian gods.  His statue is across the street adorned with garlands of flowers, constantly being photographed.  Sunbathers fill up the juice bar again, and the blenders are all on making smoothies, whirring away amidst the chatter about evening parties and associated gossip.  There is nothing too serious here.  That wouldn't fit the picture.  There is one police officer down the way resting on a bicycle, watching over it all.

     The Hawaiian islands are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with nothing else anywhere near them.  Japan, Fiji, Samoa, French Polynesia, and everywhere else is not close by.  This is truly an isolated place.  The big city of Honolulu has all of the urban attributes, such as high rises, a variety of entertainment venues, an industrial section, an airport, a university, lots of motorized traffic, and four floors of the world class Ala Moana Shopping Center.  And still, this is an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

     Sitting on a bench along the canal, looking at Diamond Head and the 40 million dollar homes in the distance, lulled by the balmy weather, it is an effort to remain awake.  Indeed, why bother?  Palm trees sway slightly in the breeze.  Emerald green hillsides are illumined by the sun.  One can only wonder where they got the script ideas for Hawaii Five-0.  It was probably written in Los Angeles and then filmed here.  I haven't come across anybody on O'ahu whom Danno could book for anything serious.  How can you arrest a dream anyway?  ~Mahalo~

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