Premise 1:
Generosity while possessing great wealth is easy.

Premise 2:
Generosity and giving when you have little is difficult.

Conclusion:
If you are financially poor, but want to give, give those ephemeral things which everyone has an abundance of: Love, Time, Compassion, Help, give of yourself, rather than material wealth.

But if you don't have financial or spiritual wealth to give, or just don't want to give what little you have, no worries.  Givers can't be Givers without Takers, right?

Yin and Yang.

It's a beautiful thing when you hear about a poor person giving generously of what little they possess.  But "the fact that people are poor or discriminated against doesn't necessarily endow them with any special qualities of justice, nobility, charity or compassion."  Or does it?  I will have to think more about this.

The Hawaiian Islands: a Retrospective

It's been years since I've been to the outer islands.  I haven't set foot on the outer Islands since at least 1999.  I've forgotten, assuming I ever knew, how beautiful the islands are.

Each island is different.  Big Island has the lush east side, with volcano landscapes.  The west side is drier, almost dessert-like at times.  Maui, the parts I saw, had undulating pasture lands.  Kauai was lush all around.

I see why tourists come to Hawaii.  It's a pretty place.

I attended a keynote speech at a tourism conference today, actor and travel writer Anthony McCarthy.  I agreed with everything he said.

He spoke not about the facts and figures and corporate activity of selling hotel rooms and plane tickets.  He talked instead about the beauty and spirituality and inner growth experiences of Travel.  I laughed when he argued there is no difference between the definition of "travel' and "vacation".  I had just learned myself that there is a big difference between those loosely associated terms.  Though I would say the two are two completely different activities, I agree with him when he says that both lead to learning moments.  I waited after his speech and spoke to him and shook his hand because I was so tickled by his speech...I totally "got" what he was saying.

He spoke about the superficial Hawaii vacation, i.e. the Mai Tai's at a beach side hotel bar in Waikiki. But he also said that Hawaii, and traveling in general, can provide a deeper experience to individuals.  He called them "ah ha!" moments.  I just call them moments.

Here is a moment  on a deserted black sand beach on Maui:

Reminiscent of El Salvador many miles away.

One of the more relaxing moments on my cruise trip.  I believe this was on the Big Island.  A few miles south of Waikoloa Village.

good wine and bad chinese food, or was it the other way around?

So it goes.

Haleakala

I watched the sunrise.

And I bought a red hat.

I didn't realize how disappointed I could be until I finally got what I always wanted. 

Ocean Roads

I learned during this seven day cruise experience with my extended family that there is a difference between "vacations", "family vacations" and "traveling".  I prefer the last.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of service on the boat.  All the little services and amenities added up to a pretty nice experience.  I wasn't expecting much from the staff on the boat, but it wasn't bad.  It wasn't 5 star, but it was more than i expected.   Other more experienced cruisers, they like to call themselves "cruisers", said that this particular cruise wasn't that great in terms of food or service or activities.  My feelings about it is that you're not really paying to stay on the boat to watch shows, swim in the pool and eat buffetts, you're there to go on shore and see the islands.

This is one of those vacations where I'm going to need a vacation to recover from it.  It was very fun, but tiring.

I learned many things about family, life, health, patience, kids,  etc...

 I learned it takes about 30 minutes to get kids ready to go somewhere in a car.

Not that there was any doubt before, but i would reiterate that i'm definitely not having kids. Nope.

The morning that I left I packed my things into my old backpacking backpack, the one i've used on my previous two trips.  the moment I swung the straps over my shoulders and the familiar weight settled against my back, it felt so right.  It felt so good.  I asked myself why I was wasting my life away in an 8:30am to 6:30pm desk job.  I should be traveling the world.  You should have seen the grin on my face as I walked out my front door to my seven day cruise adventure.  You should have felt my contentment at that moment in time.