Where Are We Going?

Stephen Grellet

1773-1855

"I expect to pass though this world but once.

Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to my fellow-creature, let me do it now.

Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."
- Stephen Grellet

"He who rejects change is the architect of decay.

The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery."

Harold Wilson

"They must often change,

who would be constant in happiness or wisdom."

Confucius

"The birds are molting.

If only man could molt also - his mind once a year its errors,

his heart once a year its useless passions."

James Allen






"The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water,

and breeds reptiles of the mind."

William Blake



Étienne de Grellet du Mabillier fled France at the time of the Revolution, making his way to the young United States in 1795. Like generations of immigrants after, he Americanized his name, becoming Stephen Grellet.

It was in the town of Newtown (later absorbed into Queens, New York City) that he discovered the Society of Friends, known popularly as the "Quakers, joining the fellowship in 1796. He was recorded a minister in 1798.

His success as a New York City businessman afforded him the freedom to follow his heart, and so he made missionary tours in the United States and later to every major nation in Europe where he had the opportunity to meet with Kings, Queens and Prime Ministers.

Though I first read his published journal many years ago, I have never forgotten one big take-away message. Mr. Grellet and his missionary companions often found the heads of state very receptive to their message of pacifism and square dealing among people. What shocked me as a youngster, and has stayed with me all these years, was the frankness of these "absolute" albeit constitutional rulers when they told the Friends that their nations, indeed the whole international

system, were so constituted that war and inequality were inevitable. Sadly, these "rulers" could do nothing but preside over the "way things are." For to suggest otherwise, or to lead in another direction, would be tantamount to abdication.

The king can lead only where the nation wants to go.

Today, here in the US, we have an intelligent President who wants to lead us somewhere different. As he wrestles with major problems that took years to develop, it is seemingly popular to blame him for not repairing EVERYTHING in a matter of months.

Doesn't he have the cooperation of all patriotic Americans, after all? Oh wait, that's right: the (dis-)loyal opposition has dredged the sewers for every crackpot slur and scare tactic with which to derange a frightened populace. The President was born in Kenya, he is a Muslim, he is a socialist, the economic collapse was his fault (though it commenced under his predecessor). NONE OF THAT IS TRUE! But facts, it seems, have ceased to matter to too many.

As Stephen Grellet learned centuries ago, it is a thankless task to try and improve the world. Every day there are hopeful signs of social improvement in the US for anyone paying attention. But the president's detractors would rather fault him for graciously accepting an unsought and prestigious world prize than to collaborate in providing health care to our fellow citizens thus protecting us from bankruptcy and early death that too often result from the system we have now.

People get the government they deserve.

I hope we snap out of our adolescent moodiness in time to move forward together. The alternative is too awful to contemplate.

Thanks for listening! What do YOU think?

ALOHA! Cloudia

Waikiki Halloween

ALOHA

Night is Gathering

click on photos ! Beware the gathering gloom

"Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen

Voices whisper in the trees,

'Tonight is Halloween!'"

Dexter Kozen

Vampires Loom Above the Avenue




"Come with me All Hallow's night
We'll frighten everyone in sight
Such pranks for once, are justified
And fun and frolic amplified."

19th Century Halloween postcard





Normal Looking People Prepare

"In the United States today, there is a pervasive tendency

to treat children as adults, and adults as children. . .

The result is unruly children and childish adults."

Thomas Szasz

The Ghouls Are Out!


"From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!"
Scottish Saying

ALOHA, Friends! cloudia

And Then There Was One

A L O H A

Friends!

Click on sweet photos

“Fortunate people often have very favorable beginnings and very tragic endings. What matters isn't being applauded when you arrive - for that is common -

but being missed when you leave.”
Baltasar Gracian








“The secret to a rich life is to have more beginnings
than endings.”
David Weinbaum

“The greatest stories are those that resonate our beginnings and intuit our endings, our mysterious origins and our numinous destinies, and dissolve them both into one.”
Ben Okri

The first sugar mill in Hawaii was opened in Koloa Kauai in 1835.

As late as 1968 there were 26 mills producing more than 1 million tons of the sweet stuff. In 1970 5,900 workers cultivated 239,000 acres. By 2000 only 1,000 workers on 60,000 acres remained. According to the USDA, this year there remain only 21,700 acres of waving green.

>

On Friday, Gay & Robinson of Kauai (1889) brought in their last crop, leaving Maui's Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar's 800 employees as the last of the breed.

The by now familiar scene unfolded: convoys of cane trucks, sounding their horns, drove past cheering locals. Many if not most of those folks were 3rd generation sugar workers, a living connection with Hawaii's plantation past.

The Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, and Portuguese all came to work the land, bringing their customs, languages and food: major ingredients of the unique "local" flavor that IS Hawaii. The plate lunch grew from their shared lunches, our beloved pidgin way of talking (Hawaiian Creole English) came from mingling on the plantation too.

Yes, King Sugar remade these islands. It would be impossible to imagine what we would be without it.

Fortunately for the workers, many of them will remain in their cozy plantation housing (less than $104 a month for a family house, and $10 a year for water).

We never thought we'd miss the hard work and paternalistic atmosphere of the plantation, it was not the work our grandparents wanted for us, but now there is more than a hint of nostalgia as a rich, long, way of life fades into history.

"I told them to get an education. I didn't want them working hard like me. This is hard work." Charles "Red" Carveiro, 3rd generation sugar man from 1961 to 2002, speaking of his own children.

"I just don't know what I'm gonna do." Frederick Bacio, age 70

The economy, and rising value of land, drove the closure.

I remember the signs: "Slow Moving Cane Trucks" and the dusty, red-caked trucks themselves. Little did I know then that I was stuck behind history itself. When Brother Israel Kamakawiwoole died, a similar convoy of trucks circumnavigated our Oahu while mourning crowds lined the roads.

"It was a very, very tough day for me. We tried everything to keep the company going. The (Robinson) family lost a lot of money over the last 5 years."

E. Alan Kennet, G&R president

Seed corn companies, DOW Agribusiness (bio-tech), and Pioneer Hi-Bred, are leasing some of the land and will keep on a handful of the workers. There is even talk of growing sugar again, this times as ethanol, and as bio-mass that will be burned to produce electricity. No one yet knows how this will all work out, but many of us hope to see acres and acres of waving sugar cane on Kauai again.

"The sugar land is now in corn or some other crop,

So hopefully Kauai will keep it's beautiful green vistas."

George Costa, Kauai Office of Economic Development

"That's been a goal of our family, to work hard for a better life. But never forget your roots and the values to work hard and respect your neighbors."

Pat Pablo, state public health nurse who comes from

a "sugar family."

"You are the salt of the Earth, You made Kauai and Hawaii what it is."

Congressional Rep. Neil Abercrombie.

Good night, sweet prince!

A L O HA! cloudia

Antique Blog

"Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked,
in which you can walk with love and reverence"
Thoreau

A L O H A

Forward into Hawaii's Past!

Ye photographs may be viewed by "clicking" upon them

These are Ballast Stones carried by sailing vessels here to Honolulu. Once they loaded with sandalwood,

the ballast wasn't needed

and so remained here.

Photo: display at the Missionary Houses Museum.

What must it have been like to sail to Hawai‘i

with the first missionaries?

The ancient Kapu ("taboo") system and the temple idols had only recently been overthrown by the Hawaiians themselves.

When royal men & women dined together without apparent harm it was the end of the old ways.

Then the brig Thaddeus arrived from Massachusetts carrying the first missionaries into this extraordinary cultural/spiritual void.

Change swept the islands like a slow-motion hurricane.

On October 23, 1819, when the Brig Thaddeus left Boston carrying 19 Protestant missionaries bound for the Sandwich Islands with 4 Hawaiians, 3 of whom had been educated at the Cornwall School, little did they know that they would change the history of the Islands in profound ways.

En route to the Hawai‘i, a day-by-day journal

was kept of the voyage.

Entries vary from the mundane

to events of great hardship and danger.

Now an online blog follows their journey.

A hundred and ninety years later, you can follow their

six month voyage by going online to

<http://www.thaddeusjournal.org/>.

This blog was created by the Mission Houses Museum, which owns the journal, in conjunction with a new exhibit titled “Coming to Hawai‘i: A Trunk Show,” which opens in January 2010.

“We want people to become engaged in the day-to-day challenges the missionaries faced during their long and perilous voyage. Most of the missionaries were quite young—in their early twenties—newly married and full of optimism and hope for their plan to bring Christianity and Western education to the Hawaiian people. It required a great deal of courage to commit themselves to going to such a far away, unknown place, not knowing if they would ever return to their New England homeland.”
Elizabeth Nosek, Senior Curator, Mission Houses Museum, Honolulu

See you there!

ALOHA Friends, cloudia

Tropic Halloween

A L O H A!

it's

Halloween Saturday

in Honolulu

click on photos to be bewitched

The frost is on the coconut.

"Seasons in the Clouds"

"October is a symphony of permanence and change."
Bonaro W. Overstreet

Let's go for an aimless drive

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.

The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy,

while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."

John Muir

Ah; The Seasonal Leaves! (Taro: poi on the hoof)

"Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it."
Salvador Dali

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The trade winds have returned!

The air is clear and sharp.

Diamond Head, the Ko`olau & the Waianae Mountains

are crisp.

Sleeping is serene.

If I wasn't going into a sealed room with many, many psychiatrists early tomorrow (Sunday!) morning, it would be a really nice weekend.

(see yesterday's post for the juicy back-story)

Ah, what the hey.

They'll all be hungover after Saturday Night Halloween Honolulu anyway.

Maybe I'll wear a costume to amuse them.

I'll disguise myself as a normal person.

LOL!

And later this weekend, Saint Damien's relic (his hand) will be received at an interdenominational event at the Iolani Palace.

Then a procession will accompany it to it's resting place

at Our Lady of Peace Cathedral.

I heard an ancient local man telling someone:

"They sending his hand, because that's what he touched us with,

helped us."

Enjoy YOUR Day

Warmly, Cloudia

Spy in the House of Psychiatry

It's

ALOHA FRIDAY!

Welcome Back to Waikiki

photos, click on the-" Goin` up the country, got to get away. . . "
Country Joe Mcdonald

"Truth is not introduced into the individual from without,

but was within him (sic) all the time."

Kierkegaard

These ladies are public health outreach workers.
They bring help and information to those who need it the most.
They may have offices, but their real workplace is the streets,
and the heart.

<><

One night many years ago, in a city far away, a much younger me was spontaneously initiated into front-line street outreach.

Returning from New York on the train late one night, I arrived at a dozing 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. (Go Phillies!)

This is the huge, echoing sepulcher that steals the key opening scenes of the film "Witness."

Who knows why we notice the previously un-noticed?

Who knows why our lives are marked and changed forever simply as a result of walking left, or right?

That night I noticed an old man and a young boy sitting on one of the hard, wooden benches under the spooky, extreme bas-relief that depicts the history of transportation where the Amish mom and child sat in the film.

Somehow I knew that they were not necessarily waiting for a train. You might laugh at me, but I think that sometimes angels whisper in our ears. Most of the time, I only realize it afterwards. But that night I felt a surge of impersonal decisiveness that propelled me across the vast space to the all-night McDonald's.

There were 14 desultory hamburgers and cheeseburgers under the orange heating lamp. They looked as listless and purposeless as the late shift counter-person in the empty, over lit, late night oasis.

"Please give me all of those hamburgers."

"Is that to go?"

"No, I'm gonna eat them here while you watch! Just put them in a bag please."

What happened next was an out-of-body experience.

As you can tell from the interchange above, I was an impatient jerk who didn't suffer "fools" wisely back then. Thinking about it now, I realize that THIS night I'm telling you about marked my embarkation on another path.

Walking across the giant space, I understood that there are people everywhere with nowhere to go, people who are hungry and cold. They had just been part of the city-scape before. Now I wondered why someone didn't just do some simple thing. It was SO obvious!

Approaching the old man and the boy, I instantly understood that this was not about me; this was bigger than me in a mysterious way. I was not to taint this with my personality or ideas. I was simply there to offer food simply.

"Want a hamburger?"

The old man looked at the warm bag, then at me.

"Who are you?!"

"No one, just take a sandwich.

They did.

That was the first time.

It was the time of Reagan, and there were more people on the streets. I could not shake the feeling, a feeling hard to describe, that this was what I wanted to do.

No bullshit. Just food.

So I bought bread, jelly and peanut butter from my meagre earnings, and made nightly forays through the streets and alleys of Philadelphia giving away the sandwiches that I made; doing it all as simply as possible. Matter of fact: "Here it is."

The only thing that I knew was the satisfaction of doing something worth-while. It was OBVIOUS: this is what you do. The only mistake as I saw it, was to do it "for the feeling."

All my self-doubt, confusion, and future-fear were quiet when I walked those streets. There was at least one reason for me to exist.

Well, long story short, I got involved with non-profit organizations. I saw how a good idea gets mired in "professionalism" and "boundaries" and "training" and measurable change, statistics and funders reports.

I noticed how the word "client" creates a judgement and a separation.

Anyway, the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatrists is meeting here in Waikiki. I used to provide medical education around issues of stigma and risk, and have been invited to speak to the shrinks about after school groups for at-risk Isle kids that I launched and facilitated a few years back. A study was published, and re-published, and so I will be the only mere BA to instruct the MD experts.

They will want to know about recruiting the participants, about the curriculum and structure of the sessions. They will enjoy the numerical data generated and published.

But what I want them to understand is that it's not all about professionalism and prescriptions. I want them to understand that it IS all about simply being there with the right attitude. It's really Aloha, unconditional positive regard, that made measurable, positive changes in the lives of the kids who participated. Mine too.

A psychiatrist or other professional is very full.

I have learned to serve others by being empty, by listening without agenda.

So I will be a spy in the house of psychiatry.

And though my presentations have always been well received, it's been a few years since I was really doing that work. I'm grateful that they asked, and hope that my information will help them serve kids better.

But I'll be glad when it's over.

A L O H A! Cloudia

October Morn

A L O H A

Welcome to a Still Morning

Here in Waikiki

photos enlarge with a click!

Aloha, Kolea (Golden Plover)

"The ornaments of your house

will be the guests who frequent it."

Unknown

I HAVE a spine! It's just pink, that's all!

“That old black magic has me in its spell,

That old black magic that you weave so well;

Icy fingers up and down my spine,

The same old witchcraft when your eyes meet mine”
Johnny Mercer

A`ole (No) Opala (Garbage)!



"Water and air,

the two essential fluids on which all life depends,
have become global garbage cans."
Jacques Yves Cousteau

Gentle Skies





"I heard the church bells hollowing out the sky
Deep beyond deep, like never-ending stars."

Sir John Betjeman


I Think We're Alone





"It's often just enough to be with someone.

I don't need to touch them. Not even talk.

A feeling passes between you both.

You're not alone."

Marilyn Monroe





This morning is hazy & still
with a tang of Autumnal chill in the air.
A gentle atmosphere pervades, as if the sky, sea and isle
were rendered in soft pastels.





The kolea,
thin from their trans-pacific flight,
settle in to the broad lawns of their winter territory.




The deep dawning present
expands like a deeply grateful breath.
Filling me with such NOW
that I have no room at all
for future worries or concerns..




Pele's vog wreathes us
hiding Oahu half in myth
like the legendary destination we are;
A living, glittering,
golden treasure
where the sheer intensity of beauty
charms us each away
from chronic ways of seeing,
and being.




Welcome to Waikiki in late October.
A quiet season
with ample time to wander
and waking-dream.




Tomorrow
the freshening Trades will return
pushing winter along
whose clear blue skies
of amazing intensity,
whose hula-swaying palms,
will stir like mesmerized titans.





Mountains so sharp
they inscribe themselves,
incise themselves,
into the viewers heart.




Thanks to El Nino
it should be a cool,
dry,
subtropical winter.




Twain called it "eternal Summer"
in the "loveliest fleet of islands
anchored in any ocean."






So welcome to Waikiki
in late October.




ALOHA, Honored Guest! cloudia