Number 5

Odds -

What are the odds? I like the dice game of craps. Odds play a big part in the throw, luck, of the dice. You cant manipulate the mathmatical outcomes of randomness of rolls, but you can try.

That is another tale, best left for pre-vegas kine times.

There was a young man, back in the 1800's. He left a fishing village in Pico Azores, Portugal. He got on a whaling ship bound for the south pacific, points beyond his comprehension. Sailing half-way around the world, to a place that nature gave isolation as its greatest gift. What are the odds he would jump ship? That he wouldnt get caught, dragged back, flogged, and worked to death?

Pretty good, I guess. He jumped ship, off the coast of the island of Maui, made it to shore, and survived. He went to work for a man land-rich, but workerless. He worked for room, board. Worked long, hard. Never paid, he made due, with what he grew, what he knew, and who he met. He met a pure hawaiian lady. His luna (boss) saw his love for this woman, and suggested marriage. They married. The luna's gift was land. The land that stretched from Haleakala to the sea, all of Kaupo Gap. Kaupo is farther down the road from Hana, Maui. Even locals think Hana is the end of the road. They had keiki, (children) And they too had keiki. One of them had 9, with only one being male. He was raised on a farm, taught in Hawaiian in a one room school house by his mother.

My tutu kane, (grandfather). What are the odds that I would never know his ability to speak fluent hawaiian until the 1980's? For shame it was to be hawaiian a long time ago. Sadness. You were not to know.

Even odds.

There was this flight attendant (stewardess). She was on lay over in Honolulu, Waikiki to be specific. There also was this guy, preparing to go to Korea. He went to the beach, to catch some sun, some surf. He asked the stewardess to watch his belongings while he swam. Passing showers caused them to huddle under a banyan tree that still stands. They exchanged address' an a promise to write. They wrote. For a number of years. In one letter, the now being discharged soldier asked the stewardess to marry him. What are the odds of yes?

Odds, they can be beat.

Me ke Aloha Pumehana.

Aloha.