I first thought about this when visiting Japan in 1985. Huge changes were rumbling, as the kids in Harajuku openly rebelled against the polite (umm in some cases rigid) practices of Japanese culture. I loved the experience of walking down a thoroughly modern Tokyo street, passing elegant women dressed in traditional kimono. I sensed this would not last much longer.

“Intermarriage” (what a strange, cold term) was ineveitable, as people travel to other places, fall in love, and decide to make it legal.

Then many of them go the next step, of course and have babies.

Dilution occurs. The purists are saddened. Some fear a loss of their culture.

This morning, I saw an absolutely gorgeous Hawaiian man running on the beach. Much as I wanted to co-mingle, I did not want to dilute. And it got me to thinking.

So here is the wacky idea. (And thanks for waiting.)

What if haole woman were to make babies with friendly haole man, and Hawaiian man were to make babies with friendly Hawaiian woman? Surrogacy taken in a different direction I suppose, for the express purpose of maintaining a linneage of physical and cultural type, while allowing all the juicy comingling and love affairs.

Most p[eople I know who couple and have babies, also feel somewhat territorial over their mates, so this would take some attitude adjustment. And those who offer their genes would accept that they are not necessarily the parents – details to be worked out by the individual people.

Besides, isn’t there a book somewhere that says “It Takes a Village to Raise a Child?”

Doctors this past week gave a woman in France a partial face transplant. For an in-depth read on the topic you can visit Sufficient Scruples Blog. I found this quote intersting:

Uninformed second-guessing of patients’ (direct or by-proxy) decisions out of personal prejudice should be a thoroughly discredited procedure by now – but apparently anyone is free to inject their opinion into others’ healthcare decision-making if they masquerade a sufficient degree of outrage.

The facts, briefly:

• Woman was mauled by her dog while sleeping about 6 months ago.
• May or may not have attempted suicide by overdosing on pills.
• Apparently said “Merci” (“thanks”, in french for the English-only readers) after the operation.

Whoa! May or may not have attempted suicide???

In the Transition, most things really come down to context — as compared to absolutes. A dog mauling is typically thought of as violent act. Bad dog. But if this dog (a labrador, to which I am partial) were trying to wake her from a nearly permanent sleep, then he becomes not a savage beast but a saving grace.

Now, to take it way out to the edge. What if the soul of the woman and the soul of the dog were co-creating this experience, to shake loose some consciousness in the world? We can’t say for sure. But it’s possible.

In the transition, all sorts of these things are possible. And probable. The bottom line being that even in death, we are safe. It is OK to trust the universe. Unintended outcomes are generated all day every day. (Wow – an intersting use of absolutism!)

Those who enjoy arguing, by all means please continue. For me, I much more enjoy entertaining the what ifs, the “I wonder what those two were up to, to conjer up this event with global attraction?”

Oh – and for you silly-minded readers, here is an article on Cheney Receives Face Plant.

There is a citizen volunteer who has somehow been deputized here in Kailua to issue parking tickets. He seems to target folks who are misusing the handicap spaces. But on my two chance encounters with him one day, he was missing the point by a wide margin.

Example Number 1: Kalapawai Market
This is a “landmarket” in Kailua, barely a block from the beach. The traffic is in a constant state of flux all day, as people run in (literally in most cases) to grab some coffee and/or a sandwich and then get on to their jobs and their vacations. This group being easily categorized as “people in a hurry” they don’t always park perfectly within the lines. But they also do not linger, so it takes someone as vigilant as the KKW to catch someone who may be parked, say, a few inches over the line into the designated handicap space.

BAM! You’ve got a $250 parking ticket! Though he himself leaves his truck illegally on the Market’s premises while waiting to catch the sloppy parkers, he does not apparently ticket himself. The parking lot is for the express use of shoppers, not guys who go around wrecking other people’s days.

Example Number 2: The Kailua Post Office
You cannot find a more consistently friendly group of retail employees (well except maybe for Sally at Kalapawai) than the folks working the counters at our post office. “Going postal” would never happen here as our friendly folk must be fed aloha in triple dose for breakfast every day.

So what a strange coincidence to literally go from Kalapawai to the PO and see again, within minutes, the same parking guru (as he must think of himself…) Only this time, he had his big pickup truck parked in the loading zone between two handicap spaces, while issuing yet another $250 whopper!

As I walked in to get my mail, I saw an elderly woman sitting in the car being ticketed, with her very elderly male companion in the back seat, and her elderly female companion coming out of the PO. They had a handicap sticker! I commented to the KKW, “Umm, your truck is parked illegally. I think you’re missing the point here?” To which he replied, the lot was crowded. Hmmm. I looked up. Barely 50 feet away, still in the PO lot, there were three spaces. I pointed this out to him. He attempted to get me to go away, beefing up his air of authority.

Then I remembered I had my cell phone. So I started taking pictures.

He first finished issuing the ticket, then moved his truck to a legal parking spot. The elderly lady’s legal woe? Well, so what if she had a handicap sticker. It was 4 days expired. Bad girl!

The thing is, of course it’s not cool or kosher or kind to clog up a handicap space. But in example #1, the car was barely encroached, in space or in time. In example #2, these people were handicapped! Jeez. I wonder where they’ll dig up the funds for the ticket. Hopefully a judge will toss it, and the KKW will be arrested for a serious lack of aloha, not to mention parking illegally himself and confusing the letter for the spirit of the law.

Go figure. Blogging is where the action is.

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