OpEdNews - Page 3 of Article: Is Nothing Sacred, Nothing Holy in Hawaii?

I worry that her ashes will be desecrated.

Finally, I found the strength to drive the roadster back to her apartment and sheepishly rang the doorbell, keys in hand. My strength of spirit was accepted and my great teacher took the keys back from me without one word, look, or sign of reproach.

“Come in. Can you stay for a bit?”

Music went on the turntable, tea was poured, and we did nothing more than talk about music, life and where we both wanted to be going.

Then. A song she wanted me to hear. It will always be a prayer not to be spoken and I will not reveal the words here.

“What does this say to you?”

I muttered something inane under my breath that was a lie.

My teacher retorted with a great belly laugh and said that one day I would be brave enough to be a truth-teller, but that I had a long way to go. She always encouraged the writing that was to be in my future.

I mourn for her sacred ashes, just as I imagine the Hawaiians mourn their lost heiaus.

I walk to Palauea’s white rocks just as the ghosts of the ancient kings still haunt the fragmented King’s Highway. I speak to my friend’s amakua, just as the kahunas still chant on the slopes of Haleakala when the tourists have returned to the resort playgrounds.

I ask for guidance and relief from the pain of a newly broken heart, hear the great belly laugh echoing in the vaults of my memory, and remember that relief will not come from any attempt to reason my way out, but only an acceptance and integration of the wounded heart into the soul. Truth is the only way out. I sit on the white rocks and no longer fear the tears that flow into the Great Hawaiian waters.

The Hawaiians have been gravely wounded. The heart of the people is broken. We must speak the truth about what is happening here, and all over the world to indigenous peoples.

Soon there will be no great force of hands pushing humanity up the slopes of our existence if we do not stop this insane quest for money and “economy” at the expense of all that is holy.

1 | 2 | 3