For Those Contemplating Life Elsewhere

Welcome to the Big Island.

Fully 99.9% of the world lies outside of Hawaii, and so if one wants to know as much of the world as possible in one’s lifetime, they have to leave the Islands for a while to experience that — more than a week in Las Vegas, which is not really indicative of the rest of the world but is a tourist trap like Hawaii.

I think a fairly small percentage of those leaving Hawaii are attracted to the East Coast, while much of the West coast might as well be Hawaii — with all the ex-Islanders living there, but really, they’re all over now.

Pretty much WalMart, Starbucks and McDonalds has standardized life across America and the rest of the world now apparently — if the Olympics are to be believed, and so it is becoming increasingly easier to live wherever the living is best — for where one is at personally.

The troubling thing about Hawaii is that it is insular like a lot of small town communities anywhere in the world — except that in these small towns, they don’t usually insist that the rest of the world has to come around and recognize that it is the greatest place on earth — or “paradise,” if you pardon that expression.

In Hawaii, a large part of what paradise means is “fitting in” in to a rigid social (political) hierarchy (the status quo), and if one stays around long enough, they’ll eventually reach the top of seniority and be next in line to replace one of Hawaii’s two US senators — or move on elsewhere and discover what else there is to do in life.

And then there is the great equalizer known as the Internet (www.) -- which makes it possible to live anywhere and everywhere in the world now -- wherever one is. No matter where one is physically, their email address and even cell phone number need not change, and practically all communications take place over those networks now.

The new meaning of community are just those who want to "subscribe" to that community and input/output. It could be sports, politics, travel, writing, photography, Hawaii. Geography is no longer what defines anybody's personal universe, and it may even be possible to belong to every community, as a global citizen.

They're probably not ready to issue those passports yet -- but they don't have to, because those boundaries have already been transcended and obliterated -- for those living on the cutting edge of world society (consciousness) now.

The World Beyond

There are a lot of great places and lot of good people all over the world — and not just those living in Hawaii.

These days, it really doesn’t matter where you actually live because everybody now lives everywhere they want to live; that’s what “communities” are about in this day and age. You belong to the community you want to belong to — and not just have to fit in because everybody tells you that’s how it’s going to be, and so the only thing anybody can do in that society, is wait for one of the elders to die so everybody can move up.

That’s the mentality starting to overtake the Islands now — as a lot of the baby boom generation wait and bide their time for the previous generation to pass on. But with life expectancies now approaching the 90s, they may be too old themselves to be able to make something of their lives then.

So when you have that inclination to change and try something different (better), you have to grab it and run with that feeling, or that vital spark dies in you — as it has in many living in Hawaii, who actually fear to try live elsewhere — but complain endlessly about their “paradise.”

That’s not what paradise is.

Undoubtedly, these are tough times to live in the Islands, which has not always been that way. At times, it has been the undiscovered bargain -- even as recently as 2002 -- marking a turn to good fortune brought about by the resurgence of tourism in the Islands and the stability and prosperity of the world all over. But that also creates its own problems of what to do with that success. Many people, instead of appreciating their good fortune, simply become more greedy -- which is the surest way to undermine and destroy whatever good fortunate a society encounters.

So then it takes many years of wandering through the wilderness before they come across good fortune again.

Exodus

Both of the newspapers ought to start writing about people who have left the Islands for better opportunities -- and help people who are struggling without hope realize that they might stand a better chance elsewhere than remaining in the Islands.

Every US community allows that as an escape valve so that people realize they can research the entire market of communities and opportunities -- rather than in thinking that no matter how difficult and even miserable their lives might be in Hawaii, this is paradise and every place else is worse, and so don't even think about moving elsewhere.

So you have these desperate people out of their minds "going off" every now and then and everybody saying what a nice, exemplary person he was because he never complained or indicated anything was wrong.

People should remain in the Islands because that's where they really want to be, and not be brainwashed into thinking that is the only place they can be -- and so they are a captive audience for the perpetrators of such captive markets and populations -- who feel they have no choice but the terms dictated to them.

There are a lot of great places to live in the world.

It’s never been easier to “shop” the world -- because of the Internet, craigslist, Google. Forbes, Money, AOL, Newsweek are always providing these lists of the best place to move now. For a lot of people, that means finally living in the place where they really feel at home, welcome, wanted, rather than being told that they are just “guests” in their own homes, which can be confiscated momentarily by those who have the power to.

An increasingly, power has become very arbitrary, as recent misconduct and outrageous decisions should make clear that there is a pattern and not just random acts of stupidity. One can’t build a sense of security and confidence knowing that at any time, everything one has, can be taken by those who merely claim the right to.

That’s the importance of having laws -- and abiding by the letter and their spirit. If there is no good faith in the writing, interpretation and administration of those laws, then there is the rule/abuse of arbitrary power. Those with a real passion for freedom leave -- and are never heard from again because the powers that be in Hawaii, would like those remaining think those have been banished from paradise, or the garden of eden, life itself and largely live in tenements in the depths of purgatory, and harassed by gang members and lynch mobs daily -- when the reality is that by and large, most everyone who leaves, immediately and dramatically improves their quality of life and lowers their cost of living -- whether they’re Asian, white, black, Polynesian.

What’s important is what benefits each individual -- and not just the status quo of the present hierarchy.