On The Way

It's ALOHA Friday

in Hawaii!

"Great events make me quiet and calm,

it is only trifles

that irritate my nerves."

Queen Victoria

See the little Prince leaving his royal parents and going into the Hawaiian

AfterWorld?

Lobby mural in the Leiopapa a Kamehameha Building (State Office Tower). 

235 South Beretania Street, Honolulu,

  named after little Prince

 Albert Edward Kauikeaouli Leiopapa a Kamehameha;

 Born to King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma

 on May 20, 1858,

 he was only four-years old when he passed away

 due to meningitis on August 27, 1862.

 The spirit of the young prince, affectionately known to the people as

 Ka Haku O Hawai'i "The Lord Of Hawai'i,"

is said to inhabit the building named in his honor to this day:

Leiopapa a Kamehameha translates to"

 "The Flower Of His Father Kamehameha."

Much hope rested on this little boy whose godmother was

Queen Victoria.

Hawaii still loves protocol and pageant.

This is the Brothers Cazimero's Christmas Show

at the historic Hawaii Theatre

"You can become a winner

only if you are willing

to walk over the edge."

Damon Runyon

(for Robert Cazimero)

Iolani Palace by Night.

Electrified by Edison himself, years before the US White House.

Honolulu's citizenry gathered right here

at eve to watch the lights come on all at once,

a bit of magic we take for granted today.

 "Our children

 (and elderly parents! cloudia)

 give us the opportunity

 to become the parents we always wished

 we had."

Louise Hart

By Day

"Morality may consist solely

 in the courage to make a choice."

Leon Blum

In Gingerbread!

"And I had but one penny in the world. 

Thou should’st have it to buy gingerbread." 


 William Shakespeare,
 Love’s Labours Lost

"The child with his sweet pranks, the fool of his senses, commanded by every sight and sound,
 without any power to compare and rank his sensations,
 abandoned to a whistle or a painted chip, to a lead dragoon, or a gingerbread dog,
 individualizing everything, generalizing nothing,
 delighted with every new thing,
 lies down at night overpowered by the fatigue, which this day of continual pretty madness has incurred.


 But Nature has answered her purpose with the curly, dimpled lunatic.
 She has tasked every faculty, and has secured the symmetrical growth of the bodily frame,
 by all these attitudes and exertions /an end of the first importance,
 which could not be trusted to any care less perfect than her own." 


 Ralph Waldo Emerson

Meanwhile. . .

May you delight in everything that comes today.

May the child in you stir

and awake

for a season of Wonder

and radical Hope.

That is my wish for 

YOU.

        What is YOURS?  cloudia

All Souls

Aloha. . . .

The Morning After. . .

The very stones & soil of Hawaii are animated with spirit.

"The lawn

Is pressed by unseen feet, and ghosts return

Gently at twilight, gently go at dawn,

The sad intangible who grieve and yearn...."

T.S. ELIOT, To Walter de la Mare

We look like a modern city. . . .

But vestiges of the past remain silent sentinel.

"Now it is the time of night

That the graves, all gaping wide,

Every one lets forth his sprite

In the church-way paths to glide."

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE,

 A Midsummer Night's Dream

No one wants to leave Hawaii - 

so they stick around.

"In culture after culture,
 people believe that the soul lives on after death,
 that rituals can change the physical world and divine the truth, 
 and that illness and misfortune are caused and alleviated by spirits,
 ghosts, saints ...
 and gods."

STEVEN PINKER, How the Mind Works

"The first thing you will hear is drums in the distance, then you will smell a foul and musky odor, and you will hear a conch shell being blown, for fair warning to get out of the way, and you will see torches getting brighter and brighter as they get closer. Your best chance is to have an ancestor that recognizes you, they will call out,"Na'u!" which means mine. If you are in the night marchers' bloodline no one in the procession can harm you. No matter what you build in their path they go straight through it. The night marchers are the vanguard for a sacred chief or chiefess who unusually have a high station in life."  - Po Kane. Haunted Hawaiian Nights,  by Lopaka Kapanu

        Thanks for YOUR visit! cloudia

Go Memories!

Yo!  er, that is, I mean:

 ALOHA !

Yeah, yeah...

Waikiki, Beach, Hawaii,

blah blah blah.

My mind is somewhere else-

Later today the

Philadelphia Phillies

will fight to remain

in the World Series Race.

The Phillies broadcasts

 were the soundtrack of my

Summers growing up:

By Sahm, Harry Kalas,

John  Facenda. . .

One day when I was little,

 Dad drove me into the city. . .

After paying some local kids to "watch" our car

we approached a big brick building that blended in

 with all the other brick

 in the city that Philadelphia was

 in the 50's.

My Dad told me that he went to

Mastbaum Technical High School right down the street.

I was a suburban kid,

 but he was teaching me that these were the streets

 we really came from. . .

courtesy (along with above): http://www.conniemackstadium.com/

I saw this on the website above

 and remembered walking past that wall. . .

http://www.baseballforum.com

I'll never forget the brilliant green of the field
after all that brick;

Right in the city!

I remember lots of cement and exposed girders.

 It reminded me of the subway

"The Philadelphia Phillies are the oldest continuous one-city, one-nickname franchise in sports, and no team enjoys as rich a history and as deep a connection with their fans. From their first game in 1883 through the team's back-to-back trips to the World Series in 2008 and 2009, the Phillies have earned a special place in baseball history and cultivated a passionate relationship with fans near and far."

From  THE OFFICIAL, DEFINITIVE HISTORY OF THE PHILLIES

Introduction by Mike Schmidt

Foreword by Christopher Guest

Dedicated to Harry Kalas

There's even a very pleasing Hawaii connection in the person of the athletic
 Shane "The Flyin` Hawaiian" Victorino.
He always seems to be in the thick of it!

So this afternoon (here in Hawaiian Standard Time) 

I will be spending time with FOX Sports,

 and my ghosts:

 Dad, Granddad, Jimmy,

 and the kid I was growing up in Philly.

Hope you make some lifetime memories this weekend,

 no matter how tiny.

 They might just loom large in later times. . .

You may sometime long to recapture the treasures

that seem so plentiful today.

     Warmly, cloudia

And GO PHILLIES!

Hawaiian Ghost

This town looks pretty modern. . .


"I ain't afraid of no ghosts."
Bill Murray

But some old characters are still hanging around


"There are mystically in our faces certain characters

which carry in them the motto of our souls,

wherein he that cannot read A, B, C may read our natures."

~Sir Thomas Browne

. . . and some even-older ones!

"The face of a child can say it all,

especially the mouth part of the face."



Jack Handy

Sure, disbelieve when the sun's shining. . .

“This night methinks is but the daylight sick.”

William Shakespeare

But something's out there.
To see more, click:

HERE

Lingering Ghosts

ALOHA!

WELCOME TO MONDAY

In

HONOLULU

"What is—"Paradise"—
Who live there—
Are they "Farmers"—
Do they "hoe"—
Do they know that this is "Amherst"—
And that I—am coming—too—"

Emily Dickenson

Moe (Sleep)

Maluhia (peaceful)

Breadfruit

on

the

Hoof!

"Family ties in the after-world remain unbroken, and all Hawaiians believe in the power of spirits to return to the scenes they knew on earth in the form in which they appeared while the were alive. Especially is this true of the procession of gods and spirits who come on certain sacred nights to visit the sacred places, or to welcome a dying relative and conduct him to the `Aumakua (ancestral spirit) world."

- Martha Beckworth, "Hawaiian Mythology"

". . . I was allowed a glimpse of a world where the spirits were so ever-present, their manifestations so powerful, that the living and the dead knew no separation...The first direct assault on this [Hawaiian] world of spirit came from the materialism of Westerners who did not recognize the sacredness of all life, animate and inanimate. . . When the Hawaiian spiritual world was altered with the coming of merchants and missionaries, (Samuel M.) Kamakau wrote that much of the Mana left the islands, as new religions, economic systems and attitudes prevailed. In the ancient days, the `Aumakua, family spirits, were healers and 'havens of forgiveness.' They guided the living and even restored life to the dead.' "

- Glen Grant, Obake Files: Ghostly Encounters of Supernatural Hawaii, Mutual Publishing

"We must be skeptical about everything, even skepticism" - Cornell West

)=(

Spiritual energy seems almost tangible here in the Islands of Hawaii. The seas, skies, and mountain forests are rich with presence; perhaps it is the Mana, the spiritual "force" that animates every pebble, every boulder, every plant on these islands. In this magic land, this `Aina, it is very easy to believe in spirits. The soil itself seems alive.

<><

Watching the volcano fountaining one night years ago, my brother suddenly saw Madame Pele, the volcano goddess dancing hula and surfing on the molten lava. He immediately turned to his friend (who turned to him at the same second) and they both blurted out: "Do you see that?!!!!!" Stories of an old woman hitching rides at night, lighting proffered cigarettes with the tip of her finger, and then disappearing after lengthy conversations, are not uncommon, and the drivers SWEAR that it happened; in some cases thanking Pele for keeping them awake and away from the sea cliffs as they drove home drunk in the wee hours.

><>

I myself have experienced the mischievous spirits of our wilder places. One night they awakened me in my Kona coffee shack, way up on the mountainside. I thought it was a large group of partiers approaching. As I awoke completely, I still heard the voices and I saw darting lights about the shack, but I knew that these were not living visitors. After a few moments they disappeared into the silence of a moonlit night. And no, it wasn't a dream . . .

><>

. . . As Glen Grant wrote, the torches still burn right here in Waikiki too! One Christmas eve a few years ago my husband and I were walking along the bustling, crowded, festive sidewalk of Kalakaua Avenue when I looked beyond the beach and out to the dark ocean to see a procession of torches moving slowly along the shoreline. Never had I seen anything like this: not lights, but torches. No one else seemed to notice, and my husband gave only a perfunctory response when I pointed them out to him. He didn't seem to see what I was talking about. Only later did I learn that processions of Hawaiian spirits are thought to travel from Diamond Head to visit the downtown tombs of ancient of chiefs, kings and kahuna. . .

><>

. . .Diamond Head itself once had a Heiau, (temple) called: Papa-ena-ena which was known as a place of processions and occasional human sacrifice. Mark Twain wrote of visiting it's crumbling walls and of the human bones still interred there. In 1874 Queen Emma (brave lady!) used rocks from the site on her Waikiki property, where they remain today at the International Market Place. Maybe that's why it's so easy to get lost in that warren of shops, carts, and bargains? By 1920 all traces of the temple were erased, and a noted girls' school now thrives on that particular slope of Diamond Head. . .

><>

. . .Downtown Honolulu has always been rife with ghosts and their stories. The voices of crying children are heard in the night where the old orphanage was. A young wahine (woman) is seen at dusk on the grounds of Iolani Palace. Its grounds have long been considered a portal to the world of Po (darkness, night). Queen Liliuokalani herself is seen to patrol the precincts of her capitol (and ours!) keeping a watchful eye on the idiocy of our elected officials who bear her Kuleana (responsibilities) today. . .

><>

. . . Honolulu's most famous ghost story was even reported in the newspapers! When King Lunalilo died in 1874 he was buried at midnight (the custom) at the Royal Mausoleum in Nu`uanu Valley above town. His father, however, asked King Kalakaua to remove his sons royal remains to Kawaiaha`o Church where the first elected Hawaiian king could lie with his people. The King acceded to the families wishes deciding, however, that no cannons would sound the 21 gun salute for the procession and re-burial; it seemed inappropriate under the circumstances. So the Punchbowl cannons were ordered to remain silent. As the procession of torches and high Kahili (feathered staff, emblems of High Chiefs and Royalty) approached the city a slight rain (a blessing) baptized the mourners and coffin. Then they heard the first "boom!" Had the King changed his mind about the artillery salute? No! It was thunder from on high! 21 loud, distinct claps of thunder were heard over the town. The clouds parted to reveal a brilliant star-filled tropic sky only as the coffin was re interred. "Thus did the gods overrule the will of a mortal." reported a local paper of the day. I have been to Lunalilo's tomb in the historic churchyard. Locals say that in the depths of night a voice is sometimes heard calling from the tomb, calling for "paka" (tobacco) of which the the King was very fond.

Photos above are from the Kawaiahao churchyard, and the old King Street Cemetery at Ward Avenue. If you are a serious ghost fan, your library MUST contain at least one book by Glen Grant (RIP)! oh, and . . . . . . . .

BOO!!!!!!!!!!

A L O H A, CLOUDIA

Sports Roots

A L O H A!

Welcome to Waikiki, Sports Fans

don't be dodos - click on photos



“The royal road to a man's heart
is to talk to him about the things he treasures most.”
Dale Carnegie









"That deed which in our guilt we today call weakness,

will appear tomorrow as an essential link

in the complete chain of Man”
Kahlil Gibran

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy

is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.

Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself."
William Blake

><>

When I was a kid, sports seemed like mass psychosis to me. Other kids, and ADULTS got so worked up about a game! Couldn't they just read a book or something?

Some ancient cultures used the outcome of games and competitions as oracles. Their gods literally chose sides and chose the victors. It is precisely the combination of talent, training, & skill plus a thousand and one variables that makes sports so compelling. And they provide a wonderful survival of magical thinking. Witness the rituals that athletes and even fans go through! If I remain standing, my team will score a basket, touchdown, home run or whatever. We make idols and demi-gods of our sports heroes because they are human-yet-excellent. We also like to live vicariously

through them.

This is not purely or even mostly a conscious thing either. When your school or town wins, spirits and testosterone rise!

We no longer build civic temples, but they survive as stadiums. Local teams are one common factor across all strata and conditions of society. Sports are, after all, a surviving, ancient form of mass behavior. Something primitive within each of us, and within our "civilization" still lusts to WIN. And when we DO win, it seems that heaven smiles on us promising to bless all of our endeavors. "What we plant will flourish!"

You might suspect that this post resonates with Monday Night Football here in the US.

Silly!

It's all about baseball and the Phillies.

The team that frustrated grand dad (and an entire city for) decades. Last year I was watching the game with my dad when they won the world series.

Dad passed around 7 months later.

I'm glad we had that moment together before he got really sick and started to leave worldly things behind.

It still chokes me up when I remember him saying:

"I just wish I could drive my car again."

Yes, the mundane things of this world are more important than I realized as a grandiose, underage philosopher

all those sports-hating years ago.

Now the Phillies of my roots, complete with my Hawaii's slugger Shane Victorino, will play in the Big Game for a second year. And when they do, I'll be watching along with many ghosts.

Yes, and I'll be enjoying every mundane little thing about it including the junk food snacks.

All the precious, passing Earthly treasures!

'Cause in heaven

there aint no beer.

But all pets go to heaven - so there will be someone to play catch with!

SHOUT OUT: To Universty of Hawaii/Manoa Women's Volleyball Coach, Dave Shoji on his 1000th Victory last week.

Go Wahine!

A L O H A, Cloudia