Articles
Waimea Thanksgiving is Here!
by Bill Jardine Nov 17, 2007
What a wonderful holiday Thanksgiving is!
Just think, it occurs on Thursday, giving everyone an ideal excuse for a four-day weekend. It is not a religious holiday, so no one gets to act like they are offended. It is one of those great holidays that don’t require you to guess what kind of a gift to give. It is a real, big feast designed around a most American theme and most American bird. It is hard not to have too many people over, and after all that is what life is all about!
In Waimea, on the blessed Big Island of Hawaii, Thanksgiving has a distinct “cowboy country” feel to it. We look out across millions of acres of rolling pasture lands, brooding lava fields and verdant green rain forests, all the Kohala Coast sailing under a rich blue sky scape in the north Pacific. The days of Autumn have cooled and the nights are dark and crisp under a canopy of glittering stars. Wood fires burn brightly in snug fireplaces, and we look forward to the winter rains yet to come.
This year we give thanks for the success of our beloved and treasured North Hawaii Community Hospital, bringing high-quality medical care to the vast North Hawaii landscape where little villages cling tightly to their histories in the gentle folds of the land. We give thanks for the dynamic educational communities of Parker School and Hawaii Preparatory Academy for bringing the wonders of the world to our children growing up in paradise.
Of course we are American to the core, in spite of this generation’s recent interest in cultural identities, so we are thankful for our incredible American Constitutional democracy that has endured longer than any other democracy ever devised. Did you realize that our United States Constitution is far, far older than all of the constitutions of Europe put together? It’s true!
Growing up in Hawaii we have always had the best of every culture, the most beautiful children, the most diverse society and the absolute best environment on earth. Whoa Nellie! It can’t get any better than that.
For all of you still longing to return to us here in paradise, please know that anything is possible … even a national holiday just to give thanks for what we have been taking for granted all along.
Imua,
Bill Jardine
