 Welcome to Finding Happiness in Hard Times. I'm Ken Burtness and I'm coming to you from Haleiva out of the North Shore. And today we're gonna look at it from the other side. Instead of finding happiness in hard times, we're gonna be doing dealing with sorrow in hard times. Because this show will be focusing on Maui and the wildfires and all the devastation it brought to our neighbor island. So it will be difficult. And the title of the show is To Maui From Our Heart. And that's where it will come from. With me today are Penny and Leilani. And the three of us will be reading poems and stories from the Windward Community College Writing Retreat. All the people at the Writing Retreat wrote things about Maui and we have some of them today. We have eight of them today and we'll have some other ones that we'll space out on following shows because Maui's gonna be in our minds in our hearts for a long time. So with that, we've got eight stories and poems to get through. So we should start. And I've asked Penny to start for us. And we're gonna go for about three minutes on each. She'll introduce the writer who wrote the piece and then she'll read the piece and then we'll pass it on to Leilani and then back to me. And we'll sort of alternate like that. Now we won't be able to get through all of them because some of them are long. And so we'll have to go as far as we can so we can get all eight in. Hopefully if you're interested as the audience and you would like to have the complete poems and everything, please simply get ahold of Think Tech of Maui and let them know. And we'll find a way to put together all the poems in their complete format and get them to you by email or whatever. So without further ado, Penny, I'm gonna turn it over to you. Thanks. This first one is a poem or a series of poems, three short poems by Harry Palmer. We feel with you, we feel with you. We feel with you, we feel with you. Nothing else can we say only that together maybe we can move along. Like a plant crawling through the cracks in cool lava, all can emerge. With time and patience, never the same, never fully leaving the old. But with all the hope that got us here in the first place. Second one is Dear Lahaina II. The thing that brings us heat brings us light. Also can bring painful death as if we should learn that all things have a shadow and sometimes the shadow steps out, takes his place front and center and tells us what we don't want to know. Nothing is permanent, nothing is without limits and nothing, as in the embers flying, nothing is solid, even grief. Dear Lahaina III. Grief, what is your name? What are you made of? Seemingly so solid, so powerful. Yet you too are passing into whatever vapor clouds are made of giving us shade, shielding us from whatever we mourn or whatever is gone like water vapor, caressing us in these times of sadness, reminding us that like the trees, we will reach life once again in a new form, born of ash and fire. Peace for a while, persistent. Thank you, honey. We're gonna go to Leilani now, and interesting enough, Leilani, as I remember your poem that you're gonna be reading from Hiroshi, that also talks about a treat. So let me turn that back to you. Yes, I'm reading Hiroshi Kato's poem, Hope. And he told me that it was based on his perspective as a fifth grader, he grew up in Lahaina, and this is from his fifth grade heart. Komehameha school, where I went from small kid time. From street by the sea, where tourists smiled at me. Pioneer in and nearby boats, all gone, but I know scared, all gone but not pow, and mow is strong. They mottled on me in the banyan tree. Olo had banyan standing tall in the dust and ash. Green leaves will sprout soon. The banyan tree is a symbol of life in Lahaina. Like many of its established residents, it is not native. It came from abroad. With firm roots, it became part of the community. As it grew and planted more roots, it increased its contributions to the community. The tree provides shelter, rest, recuperation, and relaxation for all sentient beings. Olo had banyan standing tall in the dust and ash. Green leaves will sprout again. Thank you, Leilani. Great reading. I'm gonna go ahead and start. I'm gonna turn, I have to turn my light on because I can't see too well. Hope that's not too distracting. The poem I'm gonna read is Lahaina. And it was written by my good friend Tamra Mone. We may have seen on other shows. Clear blue turns by degrees to calamity. A sooty, inky cloud, black as a curse, on hell-hot breath of ducks Lahaina with wind-whipped flame, orange tongues fed by incompetence in action, in experience. She offers up her history, a le-e decrees, commerce and conversions, boozy, whalers and sunburnt tourists, now all charcoal outlines traced in air. And the lee of disaster love somehow persists as invisible and present as gravity. Love as a gauzy memory, as tangible as a stranger's firm hand. What tape shape next from Ash and Imagination? Thank you, Tamra, for giving us that. Penny, back to you. Hey, this is an essay from Alex. Maybe you can give us the last name. I don't know the last name. It's called Lahaina's Tragedy is Hours. And I'm gonna read parts of it. It's quite long, so we'll do what we can to keep it in the time frame. Okay, it's in the Bible, she said. The Bible tells us we will soon perish as the world ends with fires so apocalyptic we will be gone. We were told that after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we were leveled by atomic bombs, I said. The Bible is never wrong, she added. Should we shake hands now, I ask? Is this goodbye? Oh, you, you know these things take time. Worldwide fires is just the beginning you just wait and see. She does have a point. I think mankind, a reckless species, hungers for affirmation, quest for power, territory, greed, war, our admirable desire to be expected. But just in case, we may be punished for our pursuits. I don't think the God my friend refers to is the disciplinarian we suppose. Rather, when things go wrong, it's because of something we did that we shouldn't have and didn't yet undo. It's hard to say that something is terribly wrong with our planet. Tragedy after tragedy besieges us on a daily basis, getting closer to home as we speak. Maui Island and the people of Lahaina and Pula are very much on my mind, as parts of them still smolder. Fires, floods, wars, abuses of both, each other. In the land we so proudly claim as our own, continue to occur at a rate and scale, defying history. Natural forces can bring about change. Certain parts of the earth are benign, others barely tolerant, others clearly uninhabitable. Over millennium, mother earth has achieved balance so that events occur that are beneficial to her existence. Parts still move seeking spaces. Mass extinctions occurred when something from outside of sets that balance, a meteor strike or perhaps, or the cumulative impact of mankind. There, I said, God isn't doing bad things to earth, we are. Even the lovely spectacular unassuming island of Maui, Hawaii, some 2,500 miles from the continental US has not escaped conflagration. Unimaginably rapid fires on dry land centered more than 2,500 homes in minutes. People who stayed behind to protect their property became ashes like everything all around. It is tragedy beyond tragedy. Prepared for tsunamis, lava flows, brick quake and such fires surprised all. And I think we have to stop there, Ken, because we're running short on time. Yeah. Well, thank you, Penny, for doing that. And thanks to Alex for contributing that. There'll be other people from the writing retreat who will also contribute when they have time and we'll be picking up their writing as well in some other versions or some other episodes of Finding Happiness in Hawaii. So back to you, Leilani. Okay, I'm reading a impassioned piece written by a woman named Jamie. I'm not sure her last name, do you know it, Ken? Yes, Makua. Thank you. Okay, it's titled What Lies Beneath and Beyond. Maui has always been the mother to me. It's where a new me was birthed after a broken heart and career abandonment. And ultimately, where I created the family I'd always longed for as an only child. I now see that Ohana from not so far away Oahu shores. I feel that same heart not breaking but bursting from sorrow for all my relations on Maui. I can only accept fire as purification, not punishment of some great cosmic wrong. As I said, the spirit of Maui is one of nurture. Like all mothers, she seeks to protect her children even from harm they may have brought upon themselves. Still digging, yes, they're still digging. Survivors, just the remnants of human beings who had found their shelter in this ancient town. So fast, so furious, those flames, flames spared nothing and no one. I think of all those who literally outran their path, all consuming destruction, not even the aim, just hunger of the element of fire, hunger to feed on those specific 2,400 acres, five miles square. Maui began the next day to create a space for those who fled or who were rescued or simply made it. Like Iniki or the floods on Kauai or Pele on Hawaii, nature has spoken, the people must respond. Yes, we mourn but our mourning is active fueled by aloha for the Aina, for the Kai, and it comes together into kuleana, that glue of responsibility that comes from our Maui. We must act now, and I think that's a good place to end. Thank you, Leilani, that's great. So we have three pieces left and they're the pieces that we wrote. And I'll go ahead and start and then turn it over to Penny and Leilani to read their pieces. Again, I need a little more light from my eyes here. This one, my piece is called A Flare on the Wind. A spark, a flash, a flare of fire. From far away, a mighty wind was blowing. The flare left on the rushing wind and became a conflagration, heading south and west toward the sea in Lahaina, fast, too fast. The fire came upon the people of Maui, unprepared, unworned, time evaporating. Little time to grab, little time to save, only moments to flee. Life is always changing, but slowly, with time to make choices, time for decisions. But on this day, time disappeared. Hurryed down by fate, and so much was lost. Flora and Fauna, buildings and homes, lives. Yet so much was spared. So many lives saved. People of Hawaii are strong in spirit and body and aloha. Together they will rebuild, honoring what came before them while finding new and better ways to live in an evolving future. And around their necks, glorious lays of flowers and hope. Thank you. Penny? Hey, this was an email letter sent to friends who had wished good thoughts over the tragic times. And there was about 25 responses to it, so it was nice. But this is what I wrote. Aloha friends, with so many expressions of concern and well-wishing from you all about Maui, I want to respond with a sincere mahalo and some additional thoughts that come from living here on these far islands in the middle of the Pacific. Words of an old friend come to mind. Kulu kulu, waimaka, tears running, check down cheeks. The most appropriate and honest depiction of the overall sentiment throughout Hawaii right now. However second world we think of our island state in so many ways, culturally, peacefully, infrastructurely, there is a very large heart at its center that binds us together. We call it Ohana. Maybe it's the isolation, maybe it's the troubled history. Even so, every island has its independent character and personality, but like an intricately knit quilt, every strand from every yarn skein is important to the comforter and all grieve when one is torn. Most of you live off island and along with most of us here on Oahu, have a heart string strung tightly in Maui, some from ownerships of condos and years of visiting weddings, anniversaries, all celebrated in Lahaina or Maui. Locally almost everyone has a relative, a loved one, a dear friend. Ours is a month, is the months of research, our own. Riding, producing a coffee table book for island heritage, published under a Maui sun. It was a best seller then many years ago in 1990. Now one of the last chronicles of culture and recreation before the fire. Of course, derogatory and critical reports of who did and didn't do the right things now emerge. And we know those reports and realities must come. But Maui is a precious gem we know and has been beaten and bruised and needs a lot of TLC. So ignore the blame game and myths for now. Think good and hopeful thoughts and help and support where you can because your memories are worth it. Sincerely, Aloha Nui, Loa, Penny. Thank you, Penny. Zeroes. Lailani. Thanks, Ken. This piece I call A Vision in the Night. Our recent full moon was a super moon. And I happened to wake around midnight and saw a brilliant ball of light pouring itself out across the black sky and painting the clouds with delicate night rainbows. I had never caught the moon in such a spectacular light show. I felt the presence of a creative power offering a vision that I need in this time of shock at the loss of life on Maui and the loss of the entire town of Lahaina, including so many historic buildings and so much irreplaceable beauty. As we mourn the loss of lives on Maui, I wonder if we can also work to eliminate the situation that provided the bulk of the fuel that burned down Lahaina. I'm referring to the agricultural lands that have been allowed to dry up after the closing down of the sugarcane and pineapple plantations when these became no longer profitable for the corporations that own these lands. Without irrigation, the land gets seeded with invasive wild grasses that can grow seven feet tall in a matter of weeks and then dry up into a massive tinder box waiting for a spark to ignite them. Just as freedom of speech does not protect the person who falsely yells fire in a crowded theater causing a crowd to panic, so the right of private property should not allow owners, landowners, to let their land produce fuel for wildfires. Furthermore, the residents of our state do have a basic human right to food security and a good argument can be made for the state of Hawaii requiring that such crime agricultural lands be made productive of food for our local community. The fact that our islands import about 85% of our food, puts us all at risk of hunger in only two weeks time should the supply chain break down because of any disaster. A foreseeable disaster is not an act of God. It is a failure of human responsibility. We've actually lived with the problem of wildfires for years and we have had our share of serious warnings. In 2018, a wildfire on West Maui destroyed 21 houses and more than 2,100 acres of land. It threatened but did not reach Lahaina. Richard Bereka, a columnist for the Honolulu Star Advertiser raised the question this Sunday of what will be the legacy of the loss of Lahaina. Quote, will it include serious fire prevention rules and clear responsible actions by government officials to assure citizens that this never happens again? Clearly, we have worked to do as citizens of this beautiful state of Hawaii to make our government work for us and protect the most vulnerable among us. We must organize and take on the issues. We must become the healing balm our people need. I wonder if the new Lahaina that will rise from the ashes might include a conference center dedicated to finding solutions to the problems we face. All the radiant light pouring across the midnight sky tells me that the answer is yes. I pray that we will all find our ways to contribute and support one another in this work of developing an effective social conscience in our state and in our nation. I pray for healing for all of us. Thank you, Leilani. Thank you. Thank you. You know, it follows up with what Alex brought out of his thing that we're out of balance. And that goes to climate change that we've been dealing with for a number of years now. And the thing that worries us is because we're not finding the solution just like we haven't found the solutions to protect ourselves from such a tragedy that happened in Maui. Now, like you say, and like everybody mentioned or many people mentioned, Maui is gonna be rebuilt and it's gonna be rebuilt out of memories and love so we will retain those and that aloha but it will still be different. And I think the key is what Leilani is saying is that something has to change. Something has to bring us back in balance so that we can be assured that we can avoid these tragedies in the future and that's gonna be a critical part of that. You know, thank you Ken for saying that. I'm aware of course our host culture is the native Hawaiian indigenous culture and within that tradition, land was never owned by anybody. Land was owned by everybody because the earth is our mother and supports us all. You can't, I mean, in the indigenous consciousness you can't own it. And they were very surprised when the, you know, newcomers said, oh, no, no, we do this thing. We sell them by land and we had the great mahele and it was kind of a disaster in many ways. There are alternative ways, I mean, between the indigenous way and the traditional Western way of property ownership. There are intermediate ways. I've learned about Henry George's proposal long ago of renting land but land cannot be sold but it could be rented for a fair price, whatever that might be. And if you're not using it, you don't get to rent it and you can't hang out to it as an investment for your portfolio and your real estate, which of course is gonna go off. It's kind of, it's a beautiful system. I recommend people read Henry George and they'll think about the fact that we could do things differently here. We've got a basic core value system in the Hawaiian tradition that would support us in that attempt to let's figure out a better way of taking care of our I know, which we love. Quickly too, before I know what running out of time can but we're not alone in this. Look at Canada, it's on fire right now. I came out of California many years ago and many friends who have dealt with this and lost their homes in various places there. It's, this is a universal problem and I think Alex had a point that we're so out of balance. So it's not just us. I think we need to reach out a little bit so that we can be of value also to some of these other places and vice versa. Absolutely. And I would certainly second the notion of land ownership because although I've been in Hawaii over 50 years, this is my home, the place, my heart. I was born in Southern California and I was born with a real feeling for the Native Americans. I lived in a place that had a Native American street name and many of those honoring the various tribes of Southern California. When we first moved in, we were living next to Ray High Eagle. It's something that is in us in the people of Southern California like it is in us for Hawaii. And the Native Americans don't believe in owning land either. They believe in giving their, well, I wanna say aloha because I've been in Hawaii so long but they're thanks to all living things to the flora and the fauna that doesn't belong to them and that allows them to flourish not only in the maternal material sense but also in the spiritual sense as well. So I think a lot of people are with us and I think that's what we found in Maui is that so many people, not only in Hawaii but in the mainland and in places around the world have come forth to say we'd like to help. And that's been a wonderful thing out of there but it has to go further than that like Leilani is saying. It has to make some changes. We can't just go back and rebuild without changing some of the things that cause this tragedy to begin with. So please keep that in mind. And like I say, there'll be more of this that we'll sort of spread out on shows because we're not gonna forget Maui anytime soon. Even if the following shows have some different topics the Maui will still be in our heart and we'll still be mentioning them from time to time. In fact, our show next week is gonna be on Hawaiian Chance and we're gonna be lucky to have Elima Stern who's a friend of Leilani's and Penny's in mind come in to do some chanting for us. Chanting for the people of Maui to give them support and also to give them their love and aloha and hope for the future. So we've got that to look forward to. Again, I'd like to thank my guests, Leilani and Penny. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you for allowing us to participate. Yes, thank you. It was wonderful. And of course the people at Think Tech of Hawaii, Michael and Haley and Jay and Carol and all the people who support all this program. I know that Think Tech of Hawaii has been doing other programs that have focused on Maui and how we can help Maui. Our program with writing and chanting and hopefully some dance coming up will be coming from not from the sort of brain side but the heart side. And that's where we're at and that's what we give of our hearts to the people of Maui in this very, very difficult time. Thank you all, aloha.