LIVING IN HENRY MILLER'S PARADISE and WHY ISIS CAN'T BE BEATEN

IT IS LIKE HENRY MILLER SAID

   There's a line in a commercial that says "California cows are contented cows." Why not, huh?

    Our "Heinz 57" Joy finds endless contentment in the garden.
    Author Henry Miller, who lived just a few miles north of our home said "I am constantly reminded that I am living in a virtual paradise."
     Amen to that!

   Spring's color wheel is at work on the coast,

  and on the hills and slopes.

WHY ISIS CAN'T BE BEATEN
Because they should be destroyed

    ISIS, a threat to the world, is a particularly challenging problem for Christians.

      Graeme Wood's What Isis Really Wants, in the March The Atlantic is an excellent examination of the menace and peril they pose and underscores why Christians are particularly challenged.  I've read and watched as much as I can, from a variety of sources and suggest Wood's article, even if you think you know all you need to about Isis.

      Followers of Jesus know that he taught to love your enemies, to forgive them, to pray for them. He admonished one of his closest followers who struck out at an enemy. He said to love your enemy is tantamount to pouring coals on their head. Nations do not live for salvation or redemption and their objectives are survival and not perfection or transcendence.

      One can advocate for a loving response and argue that  a measure beyond human justice will bear out the rightness. Some will disagree, but that is only coincidental. In a hard world of cultural and religious diversity, populated by a pastiche of beliefs, analysis, intellect and skepticism, a purely Christ like principle will not rise to the muscle of national strategic policy. This is a fully human dilemma, the kind of vile business that has been set before us in the former garden. And ISIS is a death cult, working to achieve its own religiously inspired belief they are agents of the Apocalypse.

      By civilized standards they are barbarians, ruthless with no respect for life, convinced of their "holy" mission and certain only they are right. They are a perversion of humanity, have twisted decency and justice and live as an evil strain.

      By idealized measure Christians should love them. Not to do so opens a calculus that becomes an entirely intimate equation and is for no human discussion. For those inclined it is a matter for regions of heart and soul and an accountability.  

      In this challenge, from this evil, in this time, in the practical realm of saving life, preventing destruction, stopping a lunatic movement, and destroying evil, ISIS should be eradicated. Their complete and total demise is the work of humanity, faithful or faithless, observant or atheist, contrite, convicted or contemptuous. All of us can then live with consequence, each according to our own. That is more than ISIS would ever permit.

     See you down the trail.

      

A PIECE OF PARADISE

FEWER TOURISTS-MORE LOCALS

    Around the northern point of Ohau, away from Waimea, the Pipeline and Turtle Bay lays stretches of undeveloped scenic beauty dotted by local communities of Kahuku, Laie and Hauula near Sacred Falls.

    The north shore appeals not only to surfers and fans, but those who like nature, country, local culture, agriculture and a very laid back mood.

   "Keep the country, country" is the call on signs and bumper stickers.  Here, as in communities close to nature, there is the tension between the way it is and the desire of developers. 
    I have preferred other Hawaiian Islands because of the heavy tourist development and building of Honolulu however the local and authentic feel of the North Shore and from here south to Hauula is delightfully pleasing. There is an easy accord between simplicity, balance and allowing the beauty of nature to be dominant. 
    The world has enough high rise condos, hotels and resorts. I'm with those who find favor in true local culture and perspective. Here it is country and it feels to this outsider that is how it should be.

 BATTLE IN PARADISE

 History looms in a strange juxtaposition on a point between Kawela and Turtle Bay. The beauty of paradise interrupted by an artifact of WWII.  The bunker stands at the tip of Protection Point.

 The fortification was one of many along the shoreline, protecting the Kahuku airfield that housed B-17 and B-24 aircraft.

  Here in paradise or on beaches and rises in modern Europe,  I am struck by the paradox and contradictory force of such beauty being the scene of historic and heroic battle.

 LOOK FAMILIAR?

    This banyan forest on the north shore has been a scene in many films and productions, the most recent being Hunger Games.

    Better that such paradise be the setting for only play war.  Were it that way everywhere, huh?

    See you down the trail.