Musings: Monday Morning Morsels

In the west, a moon just past full drifted in and out of a mass of swirls and streaks, some white, others charcoal, that rose up out of the mountains and stretched toward the east, where Arcturus shone bold and Venus was twinkling just below Saturn, which I wasn’t entirely certain I was seeing, though later the handy sky chart assured me it was there and gave me a name, Crow, for a distinctive boxy constellation that lacked any resemblance to the bird.

In between, where Koko and I went walking, were the Big Dipper and stars I did not know and cool air fragrant with the scent of hinano, mock orange and angel’s trumpet and clumps of aptly-named snow bush gleaming in the bright silver-white light cast by planets, moon and stars.

For me, it was a three-day weekend of work, punctuated with a few memorable highlights, like a glorious morning at the beach, lying face down on wet sand and breathing in the smell of limu, and a sunset/moonrise at the beach, feasting on laulau purchased from roadside vendors in Kapahi and Anahola and swimming in the shallow waters of a super low tide as Koko ventured far out on the reef, trying to stay close to me.

And I thought of what a gift it is to have free, 24-hour access to the coastline, an expanse of public space that is still wild in many places.

But work caused me to miss Saturday morning’s commemoration of last year’s `Aha Ho`ano — the 24-hour vigil held to bring attention to the sacredness of Wailuanuiaho`ano — which I really wanted to attend, and the Important Ag Lands meeting, which I also really wanted to attend. When I called a friend to tell him I wouldn’t be joining him there after all, he said, “believe me, you’re not missing anything, just a bunch of special interests beefing it out to figure out who wins.”

And it struck me how that describes so well so many of our civic and political processes.

The new County Council will be meeting this morning to organize itself, and word has it that Jay Furfaro will be chair. That’s no big surprise. The really interesting meeting promises to be Wednesday, the last time the current Council will meet. There’s an intriguing communication on the agenda that was added at the last minute:

C 2010-310 Communication (11/18/2010) from Council Chair Asing, requesting to address significant issues & concerns raised during the 2008-2010 Council term, such as:
• Policies, procedures, and protocol relating to changes to the County Council website;
• Distribution of Council Services documents in an equitable and timely manner; and
• Sexual harassment & workplace violence policies; follow-up to discussion held on October 13, 2010, regarding Communication No. C 2010-283.

Hooboy. Is this Kaipo’s chance to finally set the record straight, publicly answer his critics who have been so public in making numerous damaging and unsubstantiated accusations?

I had to laugh when I read Councilman Dickie Chang’s comments in The Garden Island’s ode to Kaipo:

Chang said during council deliberations for his two-year term beginning Dec. 1, he will oftentimes think to himself, “what would Kaipo do?” or “what would Kaipo think?”

Ha ha. So much for those who voted for Dickie in hopes of keeping Kaipo off.