Places of Worship

>This morning I watched the sun rise over the Koolau Mountains on Oahu. It’s our annual family trek from Pacific Northwest gray to comatose by the Pacific Ocean, waking intermittently to spray SPF 96 over translucent skin. I wanted to post yesterday. However, the hotel we were in (for one night) wanted $17 for an internet connection. Here’s the deal: you have to be mighty erudite (or at the very least, pithy) to justify that kind of money. And yesterday I didn’t feel erudite. Curmudgeonly, perhaps. So. I decided to sip Kona coffee and name the color varietals of tourist-skin-red. To shake the cobwebs I spent the morning hiking up Diamond Head. I imagined a CPR station at the top. Instead, I found a man selling certificates which trumpeted, “I scaled Diamond Head.” (I passed, very certain that in my case, the verb–to scale–would be a bit disingenuous.) The high point of a volcano rim shaped 15,000 years ago, Diamond Head offers a 360 degree vista of the southern half of Oahu and the Pacific Ocean. A long time ago, it was the home to five Heiaus (or Hawaiian places of worship). As I stand there, savoring the Pacific Ocean breeze as it cools and soothes, I can see why people would come here to pray. But I am surrounded by tourists, and I have an odd hunch that the modern translation is, “Place to take photo.”