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February 23, 2006
gifts for the gods
Sometimes, I like to read the online version of my hometown paper, The Honolulu Star Bulletin. Sometimes, the stories that I read remind me that my little island in the Pacific is still a world apart from the rest of her sister states. Take, for example, this article on the recent desecration of a couple of altars.
When I stop to think about it, the disparity of the religious atmospheres in Honolulu and in Chattanooga still takes me aback. I grew up seeing rocks wrapped in ti leaves as gifts to the gods. The tangerines, rice cakes, (unopened) beer cans, and even jars of baby food at graveyards were unremarkable, even expected. Attending funerals or memorial services for extended family at Buddhist temples was a part of life. On the street, I was more likely to meet a nominal Buddhist or a practicing pantheist than a Christian.
It's difficult to explain the lasting impact of growing up in a Christian home while still in the midst of a culture that tended to dismiss my faith as "white" or "western"...and antithetical to our island life. It is still a little strange to be here, now, in the "Bible belt." I still do a double take when I see small piles of rocks in parks or front yards. It takes a second to remember that those are probably the results of children's games or a landscaping effort...not an ahu lele to the gods.
Hawaii | By elissa | 05:17 PM
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