In my garden

when i came back from ukiah, i vowed to plant a little garden. not exactly a 'peace garden', as gabe had planted, but just a 'wish for a better world and respect the `aina' garden. it wasn't hard to do, as i got akoni to help me and we started with plant starters from home depot. i cheated. we've yet to put up a sign, and probably will never get around to it, but at least we (akoni and i) started. one day we may even bring ourselvesf to actually eat these things, but probably not. we've adopted them, like pets. they're beautiful to look at and don't demand too much attention. i, personally, just get a kick out of thinking that i could actually help something to grow and to be beautiful just for the sake of growing and being beautiful.

i imagine building a nation ought to be done with exactly those kinds of feelings--to help something bloom so that along the way we can see the beauty of it emerge from all the energy and commitment put into laying a healthy foundation. kawika liu spoke in my intro class yesterday on the topic of "self-determination as a determinant of health" (good thing i took notes or i wouldn't have remembered the title of his ppt.). what he discussed was the differences in health between whites and asians, on the one hand, and brown/native people, on the other--given the same socio-economic, education, and age status. white people and, in hawaii asians, do much better healthwise than pacific islanders, hawaiians, filipinos, etc. his research showed that 56% of differences were unaccounted for, after you factor in smoking, diet, genetics, etc. and i'm probably being too simplistic in my own summarising of his talk, but bottom line is that our ability or inability to govern ourselves, to have control over our own lives in every aspect, from work to social relations, to where and how we live, to what we eat (or what we can eat) determines our level of health. and the result of not being able to practice self-determination has resulted in high stress/low control lifestyles that make us susceptible to every kind of illness. he cited statistics for heart disease, diabetes, and asthma. hawaiians, pacific islanders, and to a lesser extent filipinos, fit the profile. it's the same profile for native americans in the u.s. and black people. higher ed generally means access to better jobs. better jobs mean more money, health insurance, ability to make choices. people are not always at the mercy of the 'system'. being poor has the opposite effect--no money, homelessness, a feeling of hopelessness, being at the mercy of the elements and of society in general, and feeling shitty about oneself. such experiences contribute to a feeling of wellbeing or not.

i would like to think my students got something out of this lecture. i think maybe a quarter of them did. the rest looked like class fell in the middle of their naptime and they were fighting to stay awake. that may have been due to the delivery, but i don't think so. it had more to do with the topic--who gives a rip about health disparities, anyway? i think there's only one person in class who's over 30, not counting myself, and very few of them see this issue as having any relatioship to them at all, so no wonder the nodding heads! all that makes me feel a little sad. these guys hold the future in their hands, whether we like it or not. that's the point, nowadays, of pushing higher ed. somebody's gotta do the work of the future. the present rockheads (most of them) who are supposed to be leading in government don't seem to be doing a good job, if statistics are to be believed.

i like to think of my students as being part of my garden. most of them thrive and are beautiful. and we won't eat them. we just watch them blossom and we send good energy and hope to hell they don't go out and damage an already fragile world. they'll have to contend with bugs and drought and others less kind who WILL eat them, but for the most part, as long as we keep watering and the sun keeps shining, they'll survive. some will thrive and go away and do good work. john kaimikaua, when he was teaching at HPU windward campus, actually wrote a chant talking about the students at HPU--the last two lines of his ole are "ola ka aina i ka wai ola mai ka lewa, ola ka lehulehu i ka hana pono maika`i": the land lives by the life giving water from the heavens; the people (students and the community) live and thrive by their good works. i think when john wrote this, he was watering the garden, a much bigger garden than HPU students, really it was the garden (aina) of the whole world. his message was for the whole world. maybe he was gardening the gardeners.