Sunday, June 13, 2010

A Native Love

My wife is part Native Hawaiian, and she dreams of living in the islands someday. Although I am less optimistic about our chances of doing so, I share the dream with her. Even though I have never been to Hawaii, I’ve fallen in love with its culture and people. And the more I learn of this land of beauty and mystery, the deeper my interest goes. 

 I am a huge fan of mythology, so in the last couple of years, I have made Hawaii’s history and mythology my unofficial emphases in college. I’ve managed to squeeze four projects in four different classes out of my fascination with Polynesia. I wrote an in-depth research paper on why Hawaiian literature should be included in a Multicultural American Literature class, I gave what ended up being a 20-minute presentation on that paper, I wrote a paper for a mythology class comparing Hawaiian mythology to other mythologies, I gave a presentation on Hawaiian mythology in a Public Speaking class, and I built a Hawaiian mythology website for a Writing for Interactive Media class. You could say that I’ve milked the subject for all it’s worth. 

But with each project, my knowledge has grown, and my appreciation has grown for a little-known and lesser-understood subject. This is a part of my children’s heritage that I want them to have, and it’s not widely available for study here on the mainland. One of my goals as a writer is to write a series of novels based on the Polynesian demigod, Maui. He is absolutely the coolest person in Polynesian mythology, and coming from me, that’s saying something. Sometimes referred to as the “Hawaiian Superman,” he has enough myths and legends surrounding him that I should have plenty of material. Yet so far, I haven’t felt inspired enough to write or even outline one of these novels. I have written chapters, but I always get stuck at that point. I can’t help thinking that maybe I just need a few novels under my belt before I can write my Maui novels. I guess all I can do for now is just keep writing—and praying. If you’re interested in learning more about Hawaiian mythology or just checking out my website you can find it at www.wix.com/ronbo10/Hawaiian-Mythology. Thanks for reading.

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