Aloha and the lack of it

Aloha and the lack of it was Originally Posted on October 10, 2004 by lavarock

I have been here on the Big Island for about a year and wanted to pass along some observations.

I was so worn out by the time I got here that I wasn’t sure I wanted to even THINK, let alone do work. I had been spending months getting my old house in shape to sell and was going through the stress of selling personal belongings. Yes, it would have helped if I had watched that TV show “Sell This House” where they spend a couple hundred dollars and remove some wallpaper and the house sells.

In any event, I finally moved, made a few trips back and forth and then settled in to life here. My Georgia house finally sold but I still fought to own this farm here.

Even thought I was living in a hotel for a month, I still began to become involved in the community (something I never seemed to have had time for back east).

I have experience Aloha in all sorts of ways. Whether it is greeting people at the airport or working with neighbors to pick up trash, we have fun. I have been treated like family and stop t ochat with complete strangers. Some of those strangers are visitors and they are surprised that we residents are so friendly

I stood outside at Wal-Mart with hundreds of other neighbors for the Day After Thanksgiving Sale and cannot tell you how much fun it was. Unlike other places, here everyone knows everyone else and/or is related. It seems in other places it is easier to ignore people or cut them off in traffic, if you will never see them again.

Here we actually slow down and wave people into traffic in front of us. It REALLY is quite common. Along Ali’i Drive (a waterfront area frequented by cruise ship visitors walking) pedestrians get to cross the street with ease. The 3-way stop works almost flawlessly for walkers and drivers.

Life is ALMOST perfect.

On the other hand, I experienced two acts of a lack of Aloha…

Last weekend it appears two people with too much time on their hands, decided t odrive down 3 long streets here and bash mailboxes with a pipe or baseball bat. This wa snot just a one time event but rather happened over at least two nights and maybe three. As I stood in line at the post office I heard someone else mention their mailbox was smashed. A postal worker behind the counter asked what our street addresswere. AS we told her, she immediately knew which boxes were ours.

The other act showing a lack of Aloha was yesterday. I was up at Wal-Mart in town and traffic had started to build. We are getting lots of runners along the streets practicing for the Ironman Competition. Traffic slows a bit as we weave around these runners. Also, more visitors have arrived on island and hotels are all about full! As I came down towards the red light there, it appears that someone traveling northward was blocking the rightmost lane heading towards the ocean. The guy in the right-most lane was blocked from going straight ahead by this visitor in the intersection. He had gotten there perhaps by jumping a yellow light, but had nowhere he could escape to, non-the-less.

This guy who could not go when the light favored him, pressed his hand on the horn and just left it there. BEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPP for something like 2 minutes until the traffic moved. I also am sorry to say that it was obvious that the beeper was a local. The condition of the car gave that away in this case. I was embarassed. The local was frustated and acting like an idiot. For those 2 minutes, everyone nearby KNEW he was acting like an idiot.

Other than these two events, it has been quite an enjoyable year.

My house on the mainland sold, I was finally able to buy this farm, my coffee won a tasting award the first time out, the weather has been fantastic and I have made many new friends.

It realy IS Paradise!