Have you ever just stopped? Not to smell the roses but to take a good, long, hard look at the world around you. To see people for who they really are. To see the world for the place that it really is. Ever feel like you just want to pull over and let the world go on without you? Just sit aside and watch the world evolve into its final form and do without the desperations, hurt, and dying place we call our world?
Sometimes I do. I want to take a backseat and watch the world go by without me. I don't want to be a part of this place and the actions of others. What, with the hunger, poverty, stress, anxiety, wars, and disease, how can anyone truly say this is a blessed place to be?
As I rode theBus home, we passed several men and women at random bus stops. Why do I remember these people in particular? Because I see them at that bus stop everyday. It is their home and that shopping cart with the squeaky wheel is their lively-hood. They have nothing, no family, no friends, no reason to go on. Yet when I say hello as I pass, their faces shine. Could it be that they have finally found the secret to true happiness? Are all of my things a facade in this great big world? I don't know.
What I do know is that I live in the land of Aloha and Ohana but it is far from the meanings held within those words. It is a land where people are being forgotten. Where those with nothings are forced to give up their squeaky wheels in search of another place to call home. Where those who do have something left, are slowly having it taken away by a government that promotes tourism over the Ohana.
Hawaii may be a beautiful place with its glowing sunsets, palms swaying in the breeze, and sunshine that gleams year-round. But on the inside, it is just another city in the democracy that we still call "our country" which belongs to "the people" when in fact, it belongs to everyone but...
I hope one day...for the sake of my children...there is a brighter, bolder future.
