I vividly remember the day I met my good friend, Kama. I was working as a bartender at an upscale Hawaiian hotel bar and he walks in barefoot and flashes me a very sincere ear-to-ear smile. It was so refreshing to meet a stranger who was not reserved with his smiles. It was pure aloha. I remember thinking, “Wow, that is a deeply nice guy.”
I don’t think we had any other interactions that day but later I found out I was right. Later, I put up a want ad on a bulletin board outside a grocery store, saying that I was looking for a place to rent that was outside of the main town, where the air was fresher and I could see the stars better. Kama saw the ad and called me—and I’m still not sure how that happened, because after I lived on his land and hung out with him for over a year, I never once saw him stop and look at a bulletin board. Maybe once at the most.
Anyway, I’m glad we met. I was 25 and he was 54 but that didn’t matter. He got me into running marathons, and deepened my appreciation of all things Hawaiian and of life in general. Thanks for the aloha, Kama.