Random thoughts (1) "A Life More Simple"

It has been a couple of days since being on vacation from Oahu, as I look back at the time I spent, it amazes me how life can be so complicated when all we do is grind to make it another day, stressing about what I don’t have and what other people think. When I start to compare how life would be living in Oahu to living in the Bay Area (CA) I start to see why people are so happy living in Hawaii. First of all the dependency of Oil or Cars is very minimal in Hawaii. Down in Waikiki where I stayed 80% of people traveled by either walking or riding a bike, yes I know Oahu is no where the size of Mainland states, but the simplicity of life is zero to none.

Through out my vacation I notice that as life becomes more simple the quality of life increases, what I mean by this is a majority of locals are always happy, always give back to their communities, their local heritage by attending special cultural events, eating in local non-chain funded restaurants and always looking to help out tourist. Hawaii is one of the places around the world that is very dependent on tourism, but Hawaii doesn’t always sell out to Corporate America, even though I did notice the 1-3 chain fast-food restaurants and the extremely large and always busy Wal-Mart, but I also notice almost the same amount of tourist going in and out of a MacDonald’s paying $3 - $4 more also going into Local operated restaurants like the various shrimp trucks sprinkled across the island (I Highly recommend GIOVANNI’S), world famous Leonard’s Bakery serving Malasadas and a Hawaiian twist on America’s favorite past time food “HOT DOGS” in ordering the very special “PUKA DOG”.

When I roamed around the island, walking down the tourist stretch of Kalakaua Ave, I couldn’t help but notice the difference between Locals and Tourists and how they carried their self perspective . A majority of tourist walked around with a sense of their wealth, wearing expensive clothes, walking in all the chain boutiques and making sure to ignore others as they greeted. On the other side I notice Locals living a more simple life, wearing their board shorts and bikinis walking around in flip-flops or barefoot, greeting each other with politeness and just trying to enjoy the day as it has been given to them. I will cherish the days I stayed in Waikiki as I could never imagine running my daily errands barefoot wearing a tank top and Hawaii printed swimming shorts. I guess in a big way I’m jealous of the Hawaiian life style. I remember during President Obama’s Presidential race hearing how he traveled and spent his vacations in OAHU and now understanding why. One of the Most Important and Stressful People in the world needs time to forget the daily responsibilities of his life and head to a place where he can kick off the suit and tie.

Another thing I noticed about Life in Hawaii being simpler is being able to enjoy the environment as it is. As humans evolved to what we are today, it doesn’t mean we have to live like pigs. I couldn’t help but notice how clean Waikiki and the Oahu Island really is; for the exception of the scattered homeless all you can see or should I say can’t see is the non existence of vandalism, trash and pollution. I can still remember how the air felt being just that much cleaner as if my body was being rejuvenated from the inside with every breath I took. I know it’s a very sad perspective when you think about how much the rest of us waste and how many areas around the world are left that is as clean as Oahu.

All in all, Oahu shares a very simple life without the dependency of the high standard living from its other brother and sister states. A different world where the majority have different priorities from you and I, a place where you can forget about your 9-5, traffic and bills. I don’t want to come off as generalizing tourist or the blue collar worker as not caring about simple life, I just want to show my appreciation for what I have witnessed during a time I know I can never achieve in my daily activities. I would love to imagine a world that didn’t matter what you did for a living or what you wore on a daily basis, only caring about waking up the next day and showing love to your fellow “BRADAH”
-ML