Sunday, September 20, 2009

Honolulu Contrasts

A L O H A!
You are welcome, Friend!
click on photos for all the usual reasons Yes, Honolulu is still growing.






It's a great place, Honolulu. We're certainly lifting its face for it. Give us another year and we'll make it look like Pittsburgh."

J P Marquand

But steps away from where I took the top photo,
this bunch of bananas is growing. . .


"Nothing had prepared me for Honolulu ... It is a typical western city ... It is the meeting place of East and West, the very new rubs shoulders with the immeasurably old. And if you have not found the romance you expected, you have come upon something singularly intriguing. All these strange people live close to each other, with different languages and different thoughts; they believe in different god and they have different values; two passions alone they share, love and hunger. And somehow as you watch them, you have an impression of extraordinary vitality."
W. Somerset Maugham in 1921
. . . in this tiny garden surrounding a dumpster
at Ala Moana Shopping Center's parking lot.

"The further I traveled through the town the better I liked it. Every step revealed a new contrast - disclosed something I was unaccustomed to. . . I breathed the balmy fragrance of jessamine, oleander, and the Pride of India ... I moved in the midst of a summer calms as tranquil as dawn in the Garden of Eden . . ."

Mark Twain on Honolulu



Of course, there are always different ways
to perceive the same realty.


"It was an ancient rule of Hawaiians that no one should hurt another bodily, or through theft of goods, or through injury to feelings. These were the only sins."
Max Freedom Long
Is that ethos OUR reality?
A L O H A! Cloudia

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish ancient rule for each one.

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful idea, to live with old Hawaiian rules.
Mahalo for the banana photo. It didn't ever sink in before that bananas grow UP, or "upside down" from how they're displayed at the store.
What's the new building?
Cheers, DrumMajor

Anonymous said...

Do they have to tear down to build up in Honolulu? I would guess that or the island is growing by leaps and bounds.

magiceye said...

does the ancient rule of hawaii hold good today too? :)


namaste /\
aloha!

Fireblossom said...

Blue bananas!!!

(Your "good morning" post yesterday inspired me to continue the good morning theme at Word Garden.) ;-)

the walking man said...

Ah but sister you have to define "OUR" before there can be an answer given.

wenn said...

lovely pictures..

Jean said...

i love watching the clear blue sky with white cloud floating in it!

ps you're invited to comment on my post too =)

Charles Gramlich said...

I love towns where the new and old rub shoulders. New Orleans is quite like that.

The Weaver of Grass said...

You always give me something to think about on your blog Cloudia.

Feisty Crone said...

Amazing quotes, Cloudia! Aloha!

Teresa said...

I really like the rules for life of the old Hawaiians! And I love the blue bananas. Yes, we have no bananas...

Akelamalu said...

The ancient rules sound good to me!

Deborah Godin said...

Reminds me of "pave paradise, put up a parking lot" I hope all the natural stuff, the traditional stuff, doesn't disappear!

Raph G. Neckmann said...

That is a very good ancient rule, to include 'injury to feelings' too!

Anonymous said...

You have captured so much in this post. I enjoyed every wonderful word. Aloha.

carmilevy said...

I believe these rules should be universal. There's a sense of peace to the Hawaiian way of life that urgently needs to be shared with a wider audience. Which means we need more clones of you to get the word out!

Daryl said...

The old way isn't so bad considering how screwy things are these days

Aloha!

Marguerite said...

Louisiana still operates under the Napoleonic Code! In some ways this is a good thing and in some ways it isn't! Cie la vie, cher! Aloha!

Cloudia said...

Yes! We have blue bananas!
WHICH new bldg? Probably a condo tower.
Walking Man beings up a good point. As Tonto said "What do you mean US, white man?"
Yes, old things are demolished. That's why I love to watch the old Hawaii 50 on TV: to see the old, the new, the unchanging.
We talk a lot about Aloha here, and it is part of life here in a noticeable way- but this is Earth, so human issues intrude.

Actually, the Napoleanic Code was better for lots of people than what it replaced, Cheri! Hope it works for you.

I get so much pleasure from your comments! Thanks so much for coming here and sharing! Mahalo, Friends

Elizabeth Bradley said...

Can't go wrong with Maugham. L.A. is constantly changing, and we see those changes in old movies and TV shows too.

Noe Noe Girl...A Queen of all Trades. said...

Lovely photos C! Just amazing.
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Cloudia said...

Aloha, you two ;-]