I Write from a Singular Place
Hana hou! Some familiar themes as viewed from Hawaiʻi
Welcome back to my experiment in memoir-turned-essay-based-on-memoir. I always have something to say in my head, so I might as well just say it out loud to all of you who are willing to listen. Thanks for joining me on this ride.
I realized when I sat down to move on to other elements of Belonging, that I was not yet done with the element of Place. Place can mean so many different things. “Place” can mean the difference between a gold or silver medal at the Olympics. “Place” can mean squeezed between the brideʻs cousins at the wedding reception (like, why am at this table?). I was using the metaphor of Place in the Herd to describe your role with respect to others in your team or family or community. And “Place” can mean something more tangible and permanent: a home, a building, a geographic location. An identity.
When your Place and your identity are - or become - inseparable, thatʻs where Purpose becomes clear. Or at least thatʻs so where I live.
Sometimes after a period of writing in circles I reground myself in the obvious. The context. Dear Readers - did I make it clear to you that my Place is Hawaiʻi?
Let me do that now. The chicken-or-egg of did I choose Hawaiʻi or did Hawaiʻi choose me is immaterial. Or not entirely. It is probably fairly accurate to say the story goes like this. We met and got to know each other over a period of decades. Eventually Hawaiʻi proposed. It was a long engagement, but finally I committed. And this committed relationship transformed and transforms me, as committed relationships invariably do.
That commitment means that this current writing, which seems urgent to me and also is retreading earlier themes told from the perspective of what I learned from human teachers in the 1990s, and then illustrated with what I learned from equine teachers right up until today, now must be told one more time (hana hou!) from the vantage point of Hawaiʻi. Thatʻs my commitment, my responsibility, my kuleana.
And when I say “Hawaiʻi” I mean a particular Place, but I also mean a People and their heritage. I mean Hawaiʻi as a way of viewing the world, an ontological and epistemological framework that is not the same as is dominant in other Places, including the continental United States where I was born and raised. I donʻt really mean Hawaiʻi as a “state” other than as I might experience glimpses of Hawaiʻi as a state of being, a state of mind, a state of belonging.
It also means that I will need to use words in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, Hawaiian language, in this writing, even more than I have up until now, in order to express concepts with the nuance required for us to gain fresh perspectives.
I also want to make it clear that I am malihini - I am a newcomer to this Place, not someone of this Place by moʻokūauhau (genealogy) or birth. And who I am, who I knew myself to be on February 6, 2005 at Keauhou, having arrived on Moku o Keawe to make it my home:
This morning I woke first at 5:30 am
Listening to the sound of the ocean
Thought here is who I am, a traveler between worlds,
a shape shifter, traveler and translator in search of and in service to wisdom.
Wisdom = knowledge of right relation which reveals right action.
What that makes me is an ally. The wisdom, the ʻike I share here, is not mine. There are audiences I can reach because I inhabit the particular body I do, I speak with my particular voice from the particular experiences I have had, and I know the skills both innate and cultivated with which I can act. That is my particular kūlana, my role or my Place in the sense of Place in the Herd.
The good news is I finally know how to pull all this writing together! And I canʻt wait to see what new connections and revelations we find along the way. It helps, dear Readers, if once in a while I hear from you.
Please come back next week. Especially those of you who are working in the real estate world like me. Or maybe who just are obsessed with HGTV and travel shows. Because we need to talk about real property - and ʻāina.
I embrace your use of olelo words. Kuleana is one of my personal favorites. I describe it as the honor/privilege of having a selfless duty. I think that relates to your mention of belonging.
I’ve always been curious about the state of currently available ‘affordable’ housing on Hawai’i. I’ve seen the funky homesteads down in Puna (some now under what, 20’ of lava?) but I’ve never seen any of the legendary Hawaiian Homestead communities.
It seems like damn near a complete failure, when I read about the lack of progress, deadly waiting lists, lack of infrastructure, etc.; despite the formidable assets of several native agencies like OHA, Kamehameha Schools, Bishop Trust, etc.
Maybe most Real Estate is about Big Bucks estates for outside money, but I am so curious as to what is actually available to Hawaiians desperately wanting to stay in Hawaii. Is there a Habitat for Humanity agency?
Here in WA, housing looks very different the minute one crosses onto a tribal reservation, kind of the polar opposite of HOA communities.
Is this a factor in the roadblocks to local’s reconstruction in Lahaina? I read Civil Beat and after a few years of that would never start a business in Hawai’i!
Glad you’re back. 💐