A last photo of former “wilderness area” off of Hawaii Kai Drive

Good Day, God!

Our new dishwasher was installed today and the change back to using a dishwasher will be easy!

But, not all changes are “easy” to process. Last month a non-profit group for a better Hawaii Kai, tore out my favorite “pocket wilderness area” here on Hawaii Kai Drive.   It was filled with old kiawe trees, various shrubs, grasses and  mongooses. I loved it!

All that diversity is gone now. Dug up root and branch. Instead we have dirt and a green chain link fence. I feared a lawn might go in. But, this morning I heard that — having removed invasive plants — they will put in indigenous plants. A good change I suppose — but still difficult for me.

Earlier today I was reading a book review of The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen. In 1898, his ship was overwintering in the Arctic. Scurvy threatened them all. Amundsen’s response was to hunt seals and “prescribe” lightly cooked seal meat to his crew. I was taken by the review’s description of scurvy: depression, morose moping in their bunks, lethargy and lack of enthusiasm even to help themselves — all of them psychological symptoms of scurvy.

Hmm. My first response was to go and take 1,000 units of vitamin C. My next: “Has anyone checked the vitamin C levels of people suffering from depression?” Pills are simple — maybe TOO simple, God? Anyway it turned out that the semi-raw seal meat was neither simple nor easy. Many of the crew found the taste awful and only ate it on doctor’s orders. The doctor, Frederick A. Cook, deserves lots of credit, God, for observing how the indigenous peoples of the Arctic ate — and learning from them.

We “invasive peoples” can still learn a lot from “indigenous” peoples, God.