Page 2 - MidWeek - January 18, 2023

2 MIDWEEK JANUARY 18, 2023
very year, we hear about the number of legal fire- works permits sold here. And every year, we in- variably hear anecdotal tales about loud (illegal)
my next “saddling up” effort, I began a new volunteer job — visiting hospice patients. Together, we mustered cour- age to share our mutual vul- nerability. In the end, cancer taught me humility and to experience deeper levels of emotional healing with others.
Writer and exhibiting artist Kaethe Kauffman (pen name, Cate Burns) has won numer- ous awards for her book of humorous essays, “Libido Tsunami,” and her poems have been featured in six award-winning poetry anthol- ogies. She has just finished a book of personal essays, “Hu- mor When You Need It.”
Chasing The Light is pro- duced by Lynne Johnson and Robin Stephens Rohr.
booms that go on for hours (or days). Asking neighbors to narc on one another simply isn’t working well enough. The idea of plainclothes cops helps, but the reality of more injuries annually apparently isn’t enough to keep scofflaws from blowing up their wares and possibly their loved ones. Current law says using under 25 pounds of illegal fireworks could lead to a fine of $200-$2,500. How about adding a zero or two to the ends of these fines? Tough as it is for neighborhood advocates who pray for a more peaceful and legal transition from one year to the next, they must step up anonymously ...
1. Someone made a big mistake.
Wanna know a bad week? How about Southwest Air- lines relying on an admittedly antiquated technology for its reservation system, using a point-to-point scheduling system (versus the more readily accepted “hub and spoke” method competitors use), and having thousands of flights and tens of thousands of bags and customers inconve- nienced — and then having a Honolulu to Oakland flight turn around midflight on Dec. 26 due to customer behavior issues! And you thought whiny relatives was a big deal at holiday time ...
I finally consented to sur- gery, still convinced it was unnecessary. Although I saw sonograms that supposedly showed a tumor blob, to me it looked like mashed potatoes on the screen.
Visitor spending here through November 2022 was up 9% versus the same time period in (pre-COVID) 2019 while the visitor count was down 11%. Oh boy! That’s what many hoped for — get the spending up, but with fewer bodies in town. Which works, as long as pent-up demand, hotel pricing, the actual experience, airfare con- venience (see Southwest), weather, economic factors and other determinants all work in tandem. If this trend keeps up, you might not see those great kama‘āina rates you’re always looking for when you want to travel interisland ...
SPEED BUMP by Dave Coverly
What Cancer Taught Me
“... When we long for life without ... difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.”
EPoints To Ponder
Really? As a vegetarian, I’d assumed I was immune to can- cer. As I fantasized about the upcoming operation, I con- vinced myself that the surgeon would find nothing because:
A— Peter Marshall (1902-1949)
Through her battle with cancer, the author learned that her vulnerability could help others.
fter a bout with can- cer, friends told me how brave I was.
2. On the off chance there was a tumor, it had dissolved because of my positive think- ing.
Happily, the ordeal was over, I thought.
who said, “Courage is being scared to death ... and sad- dling up anyway.”
I kept these fantasies to my- self, but in quiet moments, I knew I was in denial.
But being a cancer survivor meant taking ongoing pre- ventative measures to thwart the disease’s reoccurrence. No longer being in denial was positive for my mental and physical health. Sadly, the acceptance process also aroused distressing thoughts of mortality.
For me, “saddling up” meant facing cancer with in- creased meditation, prayer and honest discussions with friends and support groups. Slowly, at the gut level, in- sight arose: I had vulnerable flesh, just like everyone else, vegetarian or not.
I recovered from surgery in good humor. After the sur-
For the first time, I realized why people told me I was brave. Actually, I was fright- ened. I thought of my child- hood hero, actor John Wayne,
With this negative realiza- tion, oddly, I felt more com- passion for myself and for others who were facing can- cer or other serious disease. In
geon told me she’d removed a 1.2-centimeter tumor, howev- er, I began to realize the rascal existed. The cancer was real.
New Century Schoolbook bold (scaled H 73.6)
with Kaethe Kauffman
On Christmas Day, the U.S. Navy suggested it might take six to 18 months to fix some of its malfunctioning cameras at Red Hill. Hmm, couldn’t we ask four techie 10th-graders to get a reliable surveillance system wired up with an Apple iPhone 6s, in about 45 minutes? Fuel spills sans surveillance, fire suppressant gushing from a pipeline, more talks, conferences, meetings, discussions, sugges- tions, timetables, reversals, excuses, denials, obfuscation, etc. I’m not sure who’s in charge this week — Moe, Larry or Curly — but the people living in this area (and many out- side) are once again left wondering what, why and when.
Think about it.
john@thinkaboutithawaii.com