An Introduction to Honolulu

Have you ever wanted to live in the islands?  To feel trade-winds blowing through your hair or drive a few minutes to the beach every time you want to see waves? Have you ever wished for 365 days of sunshine a year?  Well, I’m living that life right now but it’s not exactly what I thought it would be.

Don’t get me wrong–Hawaii is beautiful and fun and the people are great.  But when you live here you get to see the other side of things.  You know, the side where your neighbors across the street are hard working people but can’t afford to live in anything more than a cramped apartment with all their kids.  Or the side where most of the families in our neighborhood can’t afford a dryer so they hang their clothes out on the lanai to dry and the whole neighborhood looks like a washroom.  It reminds me how blessed I am to have a washer and dryer, a tub and shower AND a full-sized oven/stove in my little kitchen.  Believe it or not, having all these amenities in one apartment is unusual in the affordable areas of Honolulu.

But for all their struggles, the people who live in Hawaii are granted some gifts that far out-value anything money can buy.  I’ve already mentioned the sun and surf which needs no further explanation.  There are some less temporal things we mainlanders could learn from the island mentality.

First, there’s the island hospitality.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been fed here in Hawaii.  Of course, it starts with how much Hawaiian families love to eat, but they also love to eat with lots of people.  When I worked at the Hawaii State Capitol we were always being offered food by other offices; a worker in the office next door to us even cooked local-style lunches on a hot plate once a week.  These lunches weren’t simple turkey-and-swiss sandwiches, they featured dishes like garlic shrimp with rice and tofu salad, or beef and noodle stir-fry. One cabinet in their office was filled to the brim like a kitchen cupboard!

Sharing food is just one example of the ohana-lifestyle here in the islands.  ”Ohana,” the hawaiian word for family, is exactly what our church has given us.  When our son was born (13 months ago now!) we received a giant pile of gifts from the people in our church, some of them from people we hadn’t even met yet!  Over the past year I’ve had the opportunity to see this generosity in action over and over again. The love of Christ is vibrantly alive in this church, and visible through the generous actions of it’s members. 

In a large extent Hawaii has also cured me of some of my materialism. If you had asked me two years ago if I would ever be willing to live in a 350-square-foot studio apartment with a baby I would have told you NO. Yet here I am, happy as can be with my one year old son playing at my feet in our studio.  It’s surprising how little space we need to be happy. On the mainland, where there is almost always space to spare, it’s easy to believe the cries of “more, more, more” in modern materialism. Yet somehow in Hawaii, where gas is more expensive than anywhere else in the nation and we are also well above the national average in every other cost-of-living category, we are happy.

The writer of Ecclesiastes says, “I know that there is nothing better for [people] than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor–it is the gift of God (3:12-13).” The Preacher, as he calls himself, asserts over and over again that overworking for wealth is a useless vanity, but to enjoy the fruit of your labor with your family is great joy. In Proverbs again, the wise man instructs us that “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure with trouble. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a fatted calf with hatred (15:16-17).” 

Brian and I made the last verse from Proverbs our theme when we first moved here because we couldn’t really afford to put much on the table.  Now that we’re more settled in Hawaii (and our table enjoys more variety) these verses have come to mean even more.  The island mentality is to love the things that do not “perish with the using” (to quote Paul from Corinthians): your family, your friends, and in Christian circles, your God most of all; and to be open-handed with the things that perish: food, clothing, and other material goods. 

I am thankful for the imprint this island-culture and the church we love has left on my heart. I pray when I leave this island I take more with me than a tan and a faster mile (did I mention Hawaii has great running weather?). We don’t get to the beach very often, but I treasure in my heart the things we’ve learned about being a family, enjoying each other and being generous with our belongings.  Because one day very soon I’ll be faced with all the surplus of mainland culture and be tempted to say, “I need.” May I always remember my studio apartment, the trade-winds of Hawaii and the generosity of friends.  Indeed, may we all learn to live and love in local-style.

(This is the first in a three-part series on life and lessons in Honolulu.  Please visit again tomorrow for Part II, “Night Scenes of Honolulu: Art and Ohana.”