Aloha!

I've heard it said that to learn another language is to begin to understand another culture.  I find that very exciting.  I'm currently studying Spanish on Duolingo, very slowly and clumsily but with great enchantment for the feeling of stepping just a tiny bit outside my American mindset.  I'm fortunate that our biweekly housekeeper is a native Spanish speaker, and she sometimes helps me understand some of the nuances of the language.  (What's the difference, for example, between" Como estas" and "Que tal"?)  (One is more formal, one more casual.)  

Today's Something New was to take a lesson in Hawaiian.  Such an interesting language, with only 12 letters in its alphabet and a lot of little pauses in the speaking, denoted by apostrophes in the writing.  This was a most basic introduction, of course.  Yes, no, hello (who doesn't know Aloha?), thanks (likewise Mahalo), eat, speak.  I'm intrigued, and part of me would love to continue to learn, although I don't know when I'd ever have a chance to use it.  Even if (when?!) I take another vacation to Hawaii, I don't know that I'd try out my primitive vocabulary, as it would somehow feel even more disrespectful than just speaking in English.  I'm not sure why that is. The times I've been to Hawaii, I have found people to be, in some cases, incredibly friendly, and in other cases, reserved and bitter.  Recognizing what those unbelievably gorgeous islands must have been once and comparing that to what they have become makes that bitterness, that reserve, completely understandable.  White people's history of colonizing, robbing, and ruining places like this is shameful and ugly.

Sometimes I am able to feel philosophical about history.  What happened is what happened, and may have been inevitable.  Even if it wasn't inevitable, it happened and not much to do about it now but try to learn from what I understand, and understand what I learn.  But I guess it's easy for me, with my white skin and American sense of entitlement, to feel philosophical about something that destroyed other people's lives and countries.  So the old questions still persists: What am I supposed to do with this life?  How can I spend it well?  How much of a difference can I make?  Or do I even want to make?

And all this from a few moments of learning a few words of Hawaiian.  I wonder if every Something New will be so stimulating.