Copyright 2003 hilohighclassmates. All rights reserved.
The Beauty of Mauna Kea
-Keola Beaamer
(Chant):
He lei kea noho mai (The soft white lei encircle)
Ia I ka mauna (The crest of the mountain)
Ka Mauna ki'eki'eki la (The mountain high above)
Ku kilakila (Standing high above)
Kilakila no luna (Standing in great majesty)
My friend and I would sometimes roam
The trails of Mauna Kea
And in the evening we'd come home
And see her standing there
The moon moves around her when she sleeps
Ths clouds stand beside her when she weeps
And I could be forgotten and a thousand miles away
And still I would recall the beauty of Mauna Kea
Now to any land you go
She will be with you
If you love her like I do
O Mauna Kea
And I live in the city now
And I see different things
And in the nights when I'm alone
She's in my dreams
The wind spins around her when she wakes
The sun spreads its warmth across her face
And I could be forgotten and a thousand miles away
And still I would recall the beauty of Mauna Kea
(pau)
Living in the shadow of its beauty........
We lived on the slopes of Mauna Kea. It was a part of our lives, towering over us in sunlight and darkness, in sunshine and rain.
As a kid I tried climbing to its summit with my brother and a friend. (There were no roads to the summit, then). The climb took all day and into the evening. The climb on the top third of the mountain gave all of us altitude sickness. We would be puking all over the place and feeling nauseated the whole time. Gasping for breath in the oxygen poor air, we would stumble forward for five days, then fall down and rest before getting up and repeating the sequence of gasping, walking and falling down every few feet. Amazingly, we did get to the upper reaches of the mountain!
As we made our way down the mountain it had already turned dark and cold. When we got to the car, a '55 Chevy we had borrowed from a family friend, the locks had already frozen over. So we got a rock, smashed through one of its side glass vents, reached in a pulled up on the door handle thus opening the door.
So we started to set off down the unpaved, dirt road in the direction of the Saddle Road. However, no sooner than we had set off........we ran into a ditch from which we could not extricate ourselves.
I was resigned to spending a cold, cold night in the car. However, my brother saw some moving lights in the distance. We started yelling toward those moving lights. Lo and behold, it was my parents with some family friends who had come to search for us. What a relief it was to sit in the sheep stantion cabin where they had set up a command center and drink hot coffee and warm my feet by the fire.
I have never attempted to climb Mauna Kea again. But I will never stop admiring her for her majesty.
By the way, I guess you guys nehvah go see my websites yet, no? You guys stay some miss out, man! Fo' real......try go at least look:
www.girlsofhawaii.com
And if you get time, try go look my uddah one:
www.rolandsretreat.homestead.com
I hope guys stay go bookmahk deese websites onto yo' favorites list!
Ok......'nough.......pau.
Well, I gotta admit stay Sunday and I no mo' notting fo' do. All my friends stay married, wit' an "other", or otherwise off on dere own Sunday journeys. Besides, I no mo' dat many friends. In fact, I only get couple. I guess I should go beach but I know I going get there, fight fo' parking, set up my stuff, sit down, walk around, then just drive home again......so I may as well just stay here, no?
Lsst night I drove around to all my old haunts but nothing and nobody seemed the same. I guess it's true that nothing really stays the same. Sometimes I feel like a leaf in the wind.....just fluttering around at the mercy of the elements and the universe. I even nehvah like go bon dance right next to my house which I usually go every year and bon dance up a storm. I not even Japanee but I just love the bon dance music and all the dances. I learn the unfamiliar dances by just watching the sequence a couple times.......I think cause I had to train my mind to learn the kung fu sets that way......so now I can learn physical sequences pretty easy. But the soul of the different dances of life......that can't be learned so east........you gotta dig deep down inside your spirit and make a connection with the spirit running through that particular dance of life.
My inner spirit always talking to me. Sometimes it gets irritating to always get a connection whenever I hear a word or see something.....then all the memories of a certain time or event come flooding back to me. I have a photographic memory of events......even things I witnessed when I was still in diapers...........it's both a blessing and a curse. One of my friends cannot remember life events beyond yesterday...........he is totally oblivious........and obliviously happy. And me......same ol' existential psychotic plodding through the different layers of life.
What's the difference between drinking hot tea and ice tea? Really, that's a question I have. My sifu nehvah tell me.....even after I asked him. He just told me that if I gotta boil the water anyway fo' make the tea that I may as well drink 'em hot. But I just love ice tea.....I stay addicted to ice tea. I gotta have it.......even when I used to go travel I had to bring ice tea mix with me fo' make ice tea. I went to Romania and I was nutso because they nehvah have ice tea ovah dehah. In New York City I loved it at Times Square cause had all these neat deli's whehah I could go grind all kine' diferent eats .......and drink ice tea. One shave ice guy I not......I just love ice tea.
Speaking of shave ice.........when I was small keed my muddah used to take us shave ice stand in Waiakea in Hilo. We had the choice of ice cream sandwich or shave ice. And if we chose shave ice we, of course, had the choice between azuki beans or ice cream at the bottom. Then we used to take our treats with us down the road to Liliuokalani (Japanee) Park, eat our ice cream sandwich or ice shave, then make little traps with coconut palm fronds and try fo' catch the litlle black, rock crabs that was in the ponds. (I told you I have a photographic memory).
And speaking of Liliuokalani Park..........there is no sight on earth as incredible as the view (on a clear day) of looking from the Liluokalani side of Hilo Bay........across the bay, up the Hamakua Coast shoreline, and up, up, up to the snow capped peaks of that grand lady, Mauna Kea. That's why I really love and relate to the song, "The Beauty of Mauna Kea", by Keola Beamer.
And speaking of Keola Beamer.......I remember small keed time wandering into Keola's grandfuddah's store on Hilo Bayfront. The store had no name.....only a small wooden sign wit' the name "Pete C. Beamer" out front, hanging from the sidewalk rafters which kept pedestrians dry from the frequent Hilo rains. Inside was like a different world.....old, unvarnished wooden floors and all kine' gadgets and gizmos. Even had one olden days bicycle, besides uddah stuffs, hanging from the high, skylighted ceiling.
Keola nehvah come out wit' one album long time. I wonder what he stay do? His slack key so nahenahe, so sweet. My slack key kumu, Ozzie Kotani, used to go visit him on Maui and dey used to jam together.
And speaking of Ozzie, I nehvah see him long time, too. I been emailing him.....bugging him fo' get me the tabs fo' "Kumu Home O' Kahaluu" (with chimes), but he no answer. Anybody out dere get da tabs?
Well, China's contest next week-end. I was going enter.......my cousin was going lend me one of his longboards fo' practice......but when he went bring the 9'6" ovah......nehvah fit in the elevator cause the elevator only stay 9' tall so the board nehvah fit inside....so I no could use 'em.......bummah's, man! Anybody out dere get one 9' you can sell me cheap?
Speaking of sell me cheap, no foget fo check out my websites and please kokua and subscribe to the second one (the wahine nani one):
www.rolandsretreat.homestead.com
ok, pau..........mahalo.
Saw a story last night on the "Prime Time Thursday With Diane Sawyer" television program about Diane Sawyer's remembrance about a young girl who had cystic fibrosis her whole life..........who struggled to live..........and to live joyously for all of her life before she died at age 19.
One of her greatest accomplishments, in her own eyes, was falling in love. In today's world it is not an unusual revelation. It is difficult, as we try to eke out a living, to live joyously........and such an unexpected luxury to fall in love.
This young girl, wise beyond her years, didn't reflect on her life by the amount of pennies in her bank or how economically or socially revered she was in her community. Rather, her assessment of her success was measured by what joy she was able to squeeze out of life, refusing to be discouraged by the prospect that her life was going to be a short one.
Our Hawaii was not as it was when we were growing up as baby boomers. Much more economic and social concerns inundate our lifestyles and concerns. Get in the car, go work, come home, sleep.......day after day......No mo' time play music, no mo' time be with family and friends.......no mo' too much no mo'.
Too much pilikia now days. But if can just bust loose from our thinking and the kine' energy we put into and about life........and just try squeeze as much of the joy the universe has to offer into own own lives.......then maybe we can be like that courageous young girl who was determined to be successful in the true sense of what it means to be successful in this life.
By the way, please no forget fo' check out my favorite links:
www.girlsofhawaii.com
www.rolandsretreat.homestead.com
Whew! Finally got back in here after Ryan figured out how to do it........thought I was locked out forever as I am a complete dummy in not writing down my password and user name!
I have been away in my own mind since I last blogged on.......and thus, I forgot how to even get back to this site. Mokihana White posted a sweet entry into the log of my last entry and I hope you will take the time to take a look at it.
Don't know where I last left off but it's been nutso trying to get a new website out and trying to steer traffic to my site. Hope I'm not breaking any rules by listing my site name: www.girlsofhawaii.com
Well, if it is a breakage of rules, I'm sure I'll hear about it soon enough from Ryan! But it really is a nice site and I hope that some of you will take a sec to take a look at it.
By the way, my personal website is: www.rolandsretreat.homestead.com
Hope that if you utterly refuse to look at the girlsofhawaii website that you'll take a moment and look at the latter.
What else...........nutting, really...........the usual maniacal existence.....still trying to decide what I want to do when I grow up. All I can say is, "Akatudi!!!" For those of you who don't know what "akatudi" is, think of what goes through your mind and when you're totally embarassed and want to hide in a hole and yet, sheepishly, realize that life is short and "cowabunga" goes through your mind.
Well, now that I've broken al the blogging rules......ovah and out...........laters.