WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.850 align:middle line:84% This is Laie, on the North Shore of Oahu, where 00:00:05.850 --> 00:00:07.710 align:middle line:90% my grandfather had a store. 00:00:07.710 --> 00:00:11.120 align:middle line:90% 00:00:11.120 --> 00:00:14.180 align:middle line:84% And these are the waters that he knew well. 00:00:14.180 --> 00:00:15.770 align:middle line:84% You're looking from Laie to Kahuku. 00:00:15.770 --> 00:00:17.120 align:middle line:90% That's Kahuku point over there. 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:20.660 align:middle line:84% You could see the Marconi, they call it, 00:00:20.660 --> 00:00:24.050 align:middle line:90% the wireless telegraph. 00:00:24.050 --> 00:00:28.970 align:middle line:84% That was one of the first places hit on December 7, 1941. 00:00:28.970 --> 00:00:30.890 align:middle line:84% The Kahuku Marconi, they call it. 00:00:30.890 --> 00:00:33.990 align:middle line:90% 00:00:33.990 --> 00:00:35.170 align:middle line:90% This is a beach in Laie. 00:00:35.170 --> 00:00:40.440 align:middle line:90% 00:00:40.440 --> 00:00:44.595 align:middle line:84% This is actually near Pupukea, where he would go netting. 00:00:44.595 --> 00:00:47.970 align:middle line:90% 00:00:47.970 --> 00:00:51.240 align:middle line:84% Net fishing is when you have the throw net that 00:00:51.240 --> 00:00:53.190 align:middle line:90% has a circle of stones. 00:00:53.190 --> 00:00:55.830 align:middle line:84% And it's thought to be always a Hawaiian, yeah, 00:00:55.830 --> 00:00:58.320 align:middle line:90% a native Hawaiian technique. 00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:02.340 align:middle line:84% No, sir, That's a Buddha head technique. 00:01:02.340 --> 00:01:03.570 align:middle line:90% That's Japanese. 00:01:03.570 --> 00:01:06.910 align:middle line:90% 00:01:06.910 --> 00:01:11.423 align:middle line:84% "Kubota on Kahuku Point to Maximus in Gloucester." 00:01:11.423 --> 00:01:15.130 align:middle line:90% 00:01:15.130 --> 00:01:16.870 align:middle line:84% Wind ruffling my shirt and pants, 00:01:16.870 --> 00:01:18.580 align:middle line:90% a gleam across the water. 00:01:18.580 --> 00:01:23.410 align:middle line:84% Surf sounds in my ears, I roll the cuffs up my trousers. 00:01:23.410 --> 00:01:27.560 align:middle line:84% Wade out in rubber stocking feet over the crags of black rock, 00:01:27.560 --> 00:01:30.730 align:middle line:84% sea-slick with foam and garlands of kelp, 00:01:30.730 --> 00:01:34.150 align:middle line:84% and pick my way across pockets of coarse sand. 00:01:34.150 --> 00:01:37.330 align:middle line:84% The crushed white corals in bits of brilliant grit 00:01:37.330 --> 00:01:41.830 align:middle line:84% between my steps, and realize I have had to learn the simplest 00:01:41.830 --> 00:01:43.690 align:middle line:90% things last-- 00:01:43.690 --> 00:01:46.990 align:middle line:84% never to get angry, content each day with four 00:01:46.990 --> 00:01:51.760 align:middle line:84% bowls of rice, some vegetables, and my house and store 00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:55.240 align:middle line:90% under the shade of pines. 00:01:55.240 --> 00:01:58.600 align:middle line:84% Ten years since the war's end and they sent me back. 00:01:58.600 --> 00:02:02.530 align:middle line:84% Ten years of counting myself last in everything. 00:02:02.530 --> 00:02:05.080 align:middle line:84% I was slow at first to put my hand out, 00:02:05.080 --> 00:02:07.660 align:middle line:84% to try and do the world's business. 00:02:07.660 --> 00:02:10.960 align:middle line:84% I stood aloof from that which was most familiar, 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:14.980 align:middle line:84% hurt by the drought of sympathy, cold in summer, 00:02:14.980 --> 00:02:21.080 align:middle line:84% defeated by rains in winter, the wind ever my better. 00:02:21.080 --> 00:02:24.130 align:middle line:84% But I turned back and ran with the shifting breezes one 00:02:24.130 --> 00:02:27.880 align:middle line:84% day, no longer estranged, embraced 00:02:27.880 --> 00:02:31.510 align:middle line:84% by the lapping waves of the sea content 00:02:31.510 --> 00:02:34.910 align:middle line:84% not that the land was behind me only, 00:02:34.910 --> 00:02:37.180 align:middle line:84% but that I gave no longer my first thought 00:02:37.180 --> 00:02:42.010 align:middle line:84% to myself, but to my village, to the mother who was weary-- 00:02:42.010 --> 00:02:45.280 align:middle line:84% to whom I must carry a sack of rice-- 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:48.520 align:middle line:84% to nature's dialogues with heaven, 00:02:48.520 --> 00:02:52.180 align:middle line:84% and to the lush fall of rains that darkened like blush 00:02:52.180 --> 00:02:57.790 align:middle line:84% on a woman's face, the waiting surface of the sea. 00:02:57.790 --> 00:03:01.090 align:middle line:84% My trade, finally, was not in commerce with goods, 00:03:01.090 --> 00:03:05.050 align:middle line:84% but an exchange with fear and burden. 00:03:05.050 --> 00:03:07.180 align:middle line:84% My job to relieve them, going forth 00:03:07.180 --> 00:03:11.230 align:middle line:84% through sickness and argument, bringing a pear to one who 00:03:11.230 --> 00:03:14.890 align:middle line:84% is thirsty, a joke and the trick of silence 00:03:14.890 --> 00:03:20.230 align:middle line:84% to the angriest man on the most sunless street in town. 00:03:20.230 --> 00:03:22.960 align:middle line:90% But in no way am I wise. 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:26.170 align:middle line:84% I have squandered my care on useless things-- 00:03:26.170 --> 00:03:30.100 align:middle line:84% the spoon I crave to sharpen to a chisel, the lamp 00:03:30.100 --> 00:03:33.910 align:middle line:84% I prayed for to reach through the black milk of night, 00:03:33.910 --> 00:03:39.460 align:middle line:84% the repair I sought for the worn tatter of my soul. 00:03:39.460 --> 00:03:43.390 align:middle line:84% All these came with time and a change of wind. 00:03:43.390 --> 00:03:49.240 align:middle line:84% Wars end, my innocence, again, my own first possession. 00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:54.850 align:middle line:84% So today, I look out as a wind and water man, 00:03:54.850 --> 00:03:57.910 align:middle line:84% unfurling the loose folds of my black net 00:03:57.910 --> 00:04:00.730 align:middle line:84% from its perfect geometry of stones, 00:04:00.730 --> 00:04:05.410 align:middle line:84% so it spreads like the shade from a monkey pod tree 00:04:05.410 --> 00:04:08.770 align:middle line:84% over the furtive edges of the lagoon, 00:04:08.770 --> 00:04:11.680 align:middle line:84% dropping down on the green darts of fish 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:13.960 align:middle line:84% and grasping them all up in a ball. 00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:17.019 align:middle line:84% When I cinch from the wrist, the tether, 00:04:17.019 --> 00:04:19.149 align:middle line:84% and pull the whole writhing thing up. 00:04:19.149 --> 00:04:22.700 align:middle line:90% 00:04:22.700 --> 00:04:26.740 align:middle line:84% I know now the quarters of weather when it comes, 00:04:26.740 --> 00:04:29.470 align:middle line:90% where I must go with it. 00:04:29.470 --> 00:04:34.090 align:middle line:84% Innocence is as ephemeral as that, a cloud massing, 00:04:34.090 --> 00:04:38.590 align:middle line:84% unforeseeable around the blade edge of Kaena Point one 00:04:38.590 --> 00:04:42.610 align:middle line:84% winter's night, a swarm of misfortune. 00:04:42.610 --> 00:04:45.520 align:middle line:84% Then the slow peace again, fish running 00:04:45.520 --> 00:04:50.680 align:middle line:84% with the tide, a soft wind in your shirt pocket. 00:04:50.680 --> 00:04:55.900 align:middle line:84% It is undone business that makes us most calm, a pine grove 00:04:55.900 --> 00:05:00.310 align:middle line:84% shade on a dune by the edge of the sea, coconuts and glass 00:05:00.310 --> 00:05:02.440 align:middle line:84% floats to gather, bobbing from the surf. 00:05:02.440 --> 00:05:04.990 align:middle line:90% 00:05:04.990 --> 00:05:09.760 align:middle line:84% It is to you, Maximus, I addressed myself this morning, 00:05:09.760 --> 00:05:13.780 align:middle line:84% across the continent, with the sea stretching out 00:05:13.780 --> 00:05:15.690 align:middle line:90% from my feet.