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The Goddess Speaks
Cris Rathyen
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Can’t blame bad mood on the weather
We went through a rainy spell a few months ago. As Perry and Price pointed out, it's good for the nut grass -- whatever that is.
It's also good for mushrooms -- I saw one in Ewa Beach! I couldn't believe it -- fungus in the Home of brown grass, brown flowers and cactus (also brown).
Everyone was grumbling about the cold (!!?) and my students came to school wet and crabby. I'd have felt sorry for them if I wasn't enjoying it all so much.
I hate to say this, but the truth is, day after day of beautiful weather wears me out. I mean, the expectations are always so high. There's this annoying thing about how perfect weather equals the perfect day. What if we want to have a bad-hair-day? How about one of those I-hate-my-life-days? Not here, not likely, because in Hawaii we're inflicted with glorious sunshine and trades nearly every day, and that puts a wrench in the machine of gearing mood with the weather.
So bring back the rain. I love it. We'd still go to the beach, huddle under towels and blankets, drink champagne and think, well, it could be Wisconsin.
I like the idea that nature isn't always going to oppose my furious efforts at being out of sorts. As anyone who knows me can attest, I lean to the Pollyanna end of the weather-personality spectrum. Every now and again, I want to be as glum as the weather. I want to slog along home, through water puddles that make a mess out of everyone's commute; I want to have a clean car all covered with mud from five minutes on the road; I want just once to worry that I might be hit by lightning.
Don't get me wrong -- I'm not wishing for disaster, but living on the edge of it for moment or two each year might be interesting.
But that isn't happening here, because everything here is always so wretchedly fine! That's where aloha spirit comes from -- a population conditioned to smile due to endlessly effort-free weather. You just have to be nice when the temperature is perfect, the breeze is perfect, the glorious scent of plumeria is perfect, and so on ad nauseum ... well, you get the idea.
How about those people stuck on freeways in snow-driven pileups -- I bet those people aren't smiling and wishing each other a cheery good morning! No sirrreee, I bet they're just as grouchy as can be. I don't suffer from Blizzard Envy, but still, wouldn't it be lovely to have to stay home for once, huddled around a warm fire, swilling hot toddies and snarling about the snow?
As it stands, we just don't do the snarling thing here. Nope, we tend to niceness because the aloha spirit is the inevitable outcome of a population worn down and de-grouched by perfection.
I miss feeling put upon by weather, and I'm suspicious of perfection, so I say, let it rain.
Cris Rathyen teaches English at Moanalua High School.
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