Freedom in a Can: Adventures with Hamlet

We stand in a large circle in the back yard of the farm holding hands, a collection of friends, family neighbors, strangers, volunteers…and the coerced.   It is in every way an idyllic setting, the nearby Anahola mountains frame the afternoon sun, the lush green ground cover surrounded by strategically appointed tropical flowering plants, hibiscus flowers, plumeria, ti plants, and palm trees house the song birds which love them.   Here, in their home, the owners of the farm celebrate their vows of commitment among their Kaua’i family, their ohana .   Not quite a wedding, they call it “Our Lovefest”.   What follows is not exactly a celebration of love, it is closer to a love bomb.   Ever wonder what it feels like when one of these goes off?   This is not the same as what you felt when you laid eyes on your first love.   Instead, consider it the emotional equivalent of trying to drink from a fully pressurized fire hose shoved into your face. ...

Our 3 months on Kaua’i were an exercise in participant observation, yet we still try to come to grips with this place and its people knowing that description will, at best, fall short and, at worst, generalize in the broadest strokes.   We stayed long enough to grow familiar, to make friends, to become a regular at the Farmer’s Market, to know the best happy hour specials, but not long enough to begin to take life here at face value.   Though, how locals remain peaceful when confronted by the price of olive oil and coffee I may never understand.    Among our small band of farm volunteers we've created a little ex-pat mainland community.  We are not “from here” nor have we yet fully shed our mainland ethic, nor embraced / been embraced by the island.   Despite residency status, property ownership and more surfboards than teeth, many locals will never be “from here,” they will never be a “Kaua’ian” unless they can somehow change the conditions of ...

The Hawaiian Islands are the most isolated lands on Earth.   More than 2400 miles from North America, these tiny little mountain tops are further away from any continent than any other land mass on the planet.   Despite their remote nature, Oahu has become the L.A. of the Pacific, the Big Island thinks of itself as the mainland and little Kaua’i (“The Forgotten Island”) is slowly being loved to death.   Kaua’i is a crazy little dot in the middle of the world’s largest ocean; it is and is not the United States.   Of course, I could say that about a lot of places within our union, especially those far flung and remote enough to require several planes, busses, cars and steps to reach.   This description fits Kaua’i particularly well.    Since arriving in October, my feet decided that shoes, socks and cover of any kind were incompatible with our new latitude.   Flipflops, sandals, okay but nothing at all was even better.   Within 2 weeks,...

If you think you are too small to make a difference you have never spent the night with a mosquito. -   African Proverb On our way back through the Midwest last summer, heading toward Michigan for my parents’ 50 th anniversary, we drove through northern Wisconsin and visited one of sea kayaking’s holy grails, The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.   We’ve been out on Lake Superior before and know that the big lake demands respect at any time of year, but we didn’t know what to expect in terms of wildlife.    Let me just say that impressive isn’t the word for it.   I’m not talking moose, deer, or even bear, though the National Park Service did shut down Sand Island the night after we left it because of an all too curious male black bear.   We didn’t get to experience his curiosity first hand, but the story goes that he waltzed into camp the night before we arrived, ate some poor paddler’s food and promptly washed it down with a whole can...