Thoughts from Kauai
Random thoughts from a month long stay on Kauai in May/June 2004
The arrival of the dawn in the tropics is a satisfying and profound thing. Coming up "like thunder", as Kipling would have it, is true. They say the closer to the Equator one is, he more significant is this phenomenon. Likewise, the coming of the darkness is rapid, and it goes from daylight to darkness in a trice. I like it. I don't care for the longer days in northern climes wherein twilight lasts seemingly forever. I like the balm of the night when it arrives and the cares of the day are erased. With darkness comes protection from harshness. Once upon a time I disliked the coming of the dawn, but now that I cherish my days more, it no longer intimidates. I like the idea of dawn coming and getting down to business quickly.
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They say the feral cats of Hawaii were escapees from the whaling ships of the 19th century. They abound on Kauai. I wonder about their rather pathetic lives. Driving down a country road through a cane field we saw a bedraggled juvenile tabby with a truncated tail standing alongside the field. It fled into the foliage when our car approached. I think of our fat and parmpered cats at home and know they have no appreciation of how other cats live. Mind you, neither do fat and pampered we when we think of so much of the rest of the world and the desperate lives of so much of humanity. Feral cats as metaphor? Probably not, but it is worthy of consideration. Could a creature like this orange tabby with truncated tail be taken to a warm home and domesticated into a pleasing house pet? I have no idea, and I won't mount an experiment to find out.
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Everywhere I go on Kauai, it seems there are females of virtually any age with cellphones stuck in their ear. The majority are young, and they are sometimes less than fortunate looking. My question is: what's with the goddamn phones? Once we saw a chunky young woman sitting on a glorious beach -- such a beach, with surf pounding over an azure sea; a postcard sort of place -- and she was yacking on her phone. Who on earth could she have been talking to? Who does anybody want to talk to so pressingly that they must be in such constant touch with them? We have seen people at 6:30 a.m. with those ubiquitous bits of tiny electronics pasted to the sides of their heads. These are people on vacation. Why aren't they enjoying their vacations away from the bother of a phone? Such a device can only remind me of work, and I don't want to be reminded of work on vacation. I am not with the program, folks. Technology must have passed me by -- and I don't care. All these people -- so much in touch -- and yet so alone. It's sad, really.
The arrival of the dawn in the tropics is a satisfying and profound thing. Coming up "like thunder", as Kipling would have it, is true. They say the closer to the Equator one is, he more significant is this phenomenon. Likewise, the coming of the darkness is rapid, and it goes from daylight to darkness in a trice. I like it. I don't care for the longer days in northern climes wherein twilight lasts seemingly forever. I like the balm of the night when it arrives and the cares of the day are erased. With darkness comes protection from harshness. Once upon a time I disliked the coming of the dawn, but now that I cherish my days more, it no longer intimidates. I like the idea of dawn coming and getting down to business quickly.
**************************************************************************************
They say the feral cats of Hawaii were escapees from the whaling ships of the 19th century. They abound on Kauai. I wonder about their rather pathetic lives. Driving down a country road through a cane field we saw a bedraggled juvenile tabby with a truncated tail standing alongside the field. It fled into the foliage when our car approached. I think of our fat and parmpered cats at home and know they have no appreciation of how other cats live. Mind you, neither do fat and pampered we when we think of so much of the rest of the world and the desperate lives of so much of humanity. Feral cats as metaphor? Probably not, but it is worthy of consideration. Could a creature like this orange tabby with truncated tail be taken to a warm home and domesticated into a pleasing house pet? I have no idea, and I won't mount an experiment to find out.
***********************************************************************************
Everywhere I go on Kauai, it seems there are females of virtually any age with cellphones stuck in their ear. The majority are young, and they are sometimes less than fortunate looking. My question is: what's with the goddamn phones? Once we saw a chunky young woman sitting on a glorious beach -- such a beach, with surf pounding over an azure sea; a postcard sort of place -- and she was yacking on her phone. Who on earth could she have been talking to? Who does anybody want to talk to so pressingly that they must be in such constant touch with them? We have seen people at 6:30 a.m. with those ubiquitous bits of tiny electronics pasted to the sides of their heads. These are people on vacation. Why aren't they enjoying their vacations away from the bother of a phone? Such a device can only remind me of work, and I don't want to be reminded of work on vacation. I am not with the program, folks. Technology must have passed me by -- and I don't care. All these people -- so much in touch -- and yet so alone. It's sad, really.
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