Mark Twain in Hawaii

[JonP]

I've been reading his "Roughing it in The Sandwick Isles" and thought I would share this quote that many have probably read before;

“No alien land in all the world has any deep strong charm for me but that one, no other land could so longingly and so beseechingly haunt me, sleeping and walking, through half a lifetime, as that one has done. Other things leave me, but it abides; other things change, but it remains the same. For me its balmy airs are always blowing, its summer seas flashing in the sun; the pulsing of its surfbeat is in my ear, I can see its garlanded crags, its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore, its remote summits floating like islands above the cloud wrack; I can feel the spirit of its woodland solitudes, hear the splash of its brooks; in my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago."

It hasn't even been two weeks since I left but I miss our home soooo much.
Thanks for understanding...
Jon

[PunaPaula]

Aloha JonP,
There are so many of us out here who understand exactly what you mean and who have the same longings for home when we leave the BI. What a marvelous quote that says it in such a meaningful way.
Hopefully it won't be too long before you can return. We are hoping the same for ourselves and that our next flight will be our one way.
Thanks for sharing
Paula

[Carolann R]

Sooner than you think, friend. I remember the first time in Hawaii for me and having to leave from Lihue...I watched Kauai shrink in the window of the plane...and my eyes teared up. I wanted to stay forever.

You are ahead of the game...you have a place to come HOME to. And you have a community already here for you. Aloha.



Carrie

"To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater." Bono
http://www.hellophoenix.com/art/dreamhawaii.Cfm

[Kelena]

Yes,and he also visited the Big Island, making a trek to the volcano, which he describes in great detail. He says (paraphrasing): "The smell of sulphur is not that unpleasant to the nostrils of a sinner".

[malolo]

Ever hang out in Waiohinu...eat a sandwich...in the vicinity of Mark Twain's monkeypod tree?...in hopes of getting some (not so divine, perhaps!) inspiration?

Personally I never have.
But I'm thinkin' it might be fun!

~~~~~~~~~~~



Edited by - malolo on 10/28/2006 09:54:43

[Lucy]

Malolo,

You know reading about it, I wonder if they knew the exact spot? It has been written that he never mentioed the planting or the tree in his books, just passed down by story.
The current Monkey pod that grows there now is from suckers that came off the roots of the other one that died in 1957. We are talking some years ago that Twain/Samuel Clemons could have been there and the trees expected lifespan.

I am real aware too of his statements that he made regarding his comet and his birthday/death day. Something we will never totally understand there.

Are you meaning that you are thinking of picking up on some memory imprints that he left there? Like maybe I saw on Star Trek or something else?

Aloha,
Lucy

Having another Great day in Paradise, Wherever that Maybe!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheLanai

Edited by - Lucy on 10/28/2006 16:58:12

[Lucy]

Malolo,

It was interesting in ways unexplainable when I was just a kid and read this about the comet. I think he knew more than he ever let on, in how in touch he was with the world.

Just another thought about the mystery of the man.
Lucy

Edited by - Lucy on 10/28/2006 17:00:57

[Kahunascott]

I read alot about Mark Twain and his love with Hawaii.
So I quoted him on my letter of resignation at the bottom of the letter I added,

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed in the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.
So, throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore, Dream, Discover”.
"Mark Twain"




Edited by - kahunascott on 10/29/2006 06:28:20