textSize : default : medium : large    ike hundreds of thousands of other people, I come to Hawaii for its almost perfect weather. The temperature always seems to be just under or just over 80o, the trade winds provide natural air conditioning and the water temperature is a Goldilocks-approved not too warm and not too cool, but just right. Unlike most of my friends, I don't have an ABH (anywhere but Honolulu) fetish and don't feel the need to leap frog over Oahu for the travel supplement charms of other islands. In fact, those days my dictum in NEBH (nowhere else but Honolulu). But it's a very specific part of Oahu that keeps me coming back, the same part where Hawaiians have played for 2000 years, where Robert Louis Stevenson came to recuperate from sickness and where Hawaiian royalty built their palaces. I come back year after year to Kapiolani Park, which takes its name from Queen Kapiolani, whose statue is featured prominently. On the base of the statue it says she, "was a woman of commanding presence, of easy manner and quiet disposition, ever kind, ever thoughtful of others she dedicated her life to the well-being of her people." This is not the usual brass plate hyperbole, for the good Queen Kapiolani was responsible for founding the Kapiolani Maternity Home, the Kapiolani Home for Girls and the Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children. The current Kapiolani Park is a triangle bordered on one side by the Pacific Ocean and on the other by the crouching presence of Diamond Head. The hypotenuse is made up of the Waikiki Bowl, a parking lot, which doubles as a market for local produce, and an open bandstand for cultural and musical events. The Honolulu Zoo acts as a buffer between the hotel row of Waikiki and the park. I'm not a big fan of zoos but appreciate the green screen of vegetation. At weekends, the chain link fence around the zoo becomes a place for local artists and photographers to display their work. Kapiolani Park is a place of energy, activity, art, music and life. As Bob Dylan reminded us, "It's life and life only." Each morning I'd join the endless stream of runners and walkers. There's a necklace of walkers and runners Moving from dawn until dark As shoe upon shoe taps a heartbeat tattoo On the path that encircles the park. At 7 o'clock in the morning I counted a thousand people an hour lapping the 2 mile (approx. 3 k) perimeter, which means that more than 10,000 people a day are getting an exercise fix and burning off 200 calories a lap. In one corner of the park there's a statue of one of the world's most famous walkers. The park is a patchwork quilt of games and activity from formal to informal, from major to minor and from high levels of skill to cheerful incompetence. (Remembering that GK Chesterton said, "If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing badly.") Soccer, baseball and softball are the big three, but there's a whole lot more. From 'a' to 'y' - archery to yoga. If there was a 'z' sport, I didn't see it, unless it was the Zen of tennis or a zone defense in basketball. In this East meets West interface there are games and exercise regimens from every culture, Kendo coexists with cricket, ultimate Frisbee is alongside volleyball and old Japanese men play a game that looks like a cross between croquet and mini-golf. Tai Chi is much in evidence. Plato said, "all life should be lived as play", which would make him right at home in Kapiolani Park. Across the road grass turns to sand and water sports rule. Nothing is more Hawaiian than the surfer and the sepia silhouettes of surfers at sunset... ...are enough to make you quit the working world and go in search of the perfect wave. The surfers are not alone and share the ocean with sea-skis, sailboats, kayaks and outrigger canoes. The Outrigger Canoe Club is an institution and boasts one of the fittest memberships and most beautiful oceanside restaurants anywhere. The park is more than fun and games and each day as I jogged its circumference I became aware of the little old ladies (LOL's). One paints Diamond Head again and again rather like Monet with his haystacks. Another takes photographs of flowers and trees, which she sells in the arts and crafts fair on weekends. There is one who operates a personal garbage patrol and is out each day with her rubber gloves, tongs and plastic bags. Some tend their own gardens in a corner of the park... ...while others bring their folding chairs and sit in the shade of the Banyan or Ironwood trees and read. As I jogged by one of the readers, I must have looked too serious or self-involved because she raised her head and said, "Don't forget to look up at the rainbow." My accountant, Jim McAvoy, has a unique tool to measure the stress in his life. After work each day he walks along an esplanade by the ocean. On days of stress and problems he can get to the end of the beach and never been aware of the sky, sea and confetti of sail boats. He realizes he hasn't let nature in to give its healing perspective to the problems of his world. In addition to LOL's, there are many people who clearly march to their own drummers, and there are drummers pounding our Polynesian rhythms that have been going on for centuries. There's Sam; shuffling, dancing, arm circling like a marionette. I talked to Sam who is 82 and who has devised his own exercise routine and diet. "Jogging's too hard on my knees so I do it different, I do almost everything different!" As well as its array of interesting individuals, the park, like most parks, is a haven for couples and lovers, who range from informal blanket dancing to formal wedding regalia. Alcoholics Anonymous meets morning and evening in the park. I like the sunset group, which congregate around a Banyan tree every day and go by the name of Happy Hour. I'd often stop and listen to the stories and was struck by one told by a man approaching his first anniversary of sobriety. It was a simple story of a friend in trouble calling him for some help. He said, "Can you imagine someone asking me to help them?" One of the common themes is the gratitude people feel for each day, for friendship and for the freedom they feel to make choices that don't involve getting drunk. Their messages are simple, but universal, and you don't have to be an alcoholic to benefit from listening in. Music is part of the park. People banished from their apartments for disturbing the peace, play their saxophones and trumpets. An Hawaiian choir practices twice a week and the public bandshell provides a stage for everything from ukulele festivals to classic Korean singing, from the ululating Hawaiian vocals and slack string guitars to the blues. The Waikiki Bandshell is a great music venue and the site of some legendary concerts, ranging from Bob Dylan to Miles Davis (Both of whom are featured in the 'Quotes' section of this issue.). On consecutive nights I was able to get tickets to hear Bonnie Raitt and then Jimmy Buffett. The 'shell' seemed like the perfect venue for Jimmy Buffett with his dedicated following of 'Parrotheads'. This is a man who's made a great living singing the same songs for 30 years and his audience wouldn't have it any other way. He's also one of only two writers to have written a number one best seller in both the New York Times Fiction and Non-Fiction categories. After 'Wasting Away in Margaritaville' and 'Cheeseburgers in Paradise' (A whole new perspective on wellness), he pointed up at Diamond Head and sang a great version of 'Volcano'. Just another piece of perfection in the park. As far as I'm concerned, when the sun sets on my life you can scatter my ashes on Kapiolani Park, where they can mingle with the ancient volcanic ash of Diamond Head and be trampled into the ground by the feet of people at play.

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