Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Charley Ice's avatar

In Hawaiian, "love" is not emotion but our embrace of coherence, the life-force itself. Visitors wonder at "something special" about the islands, and similarly can't quite grasp it, as it lies outside typical western thinking. Love comes from within, with self-mastery, the essentialness of connection, and comes with respect, humility, vitality. Our term "Aloha 'aina" epitomizes this idea, a recognition that all creatures are related -- the unseen actors in the soil and in the rolling waves, the plant menagerie, creatures at loose, like us, wandering the landscape making life work, together, in coherence. Indigenous people grasp this and have many stories and myths to explain it in terms westerners cannot grasp. It's time we did; the future depends on it. Thank you, Mike, for taking us a bold step forward.

Expand full comment
Michele Kling's avatar

Mike, this is one of the most profound and moving columns you’ve written for Notes. Thank you so much!

Expand full comment
9 more comments...

No posts