LIFE IS AN EXHIBITION IN WAIKIKI

schlomo · ‎08-10-2023

Life is an Exhibition in Waikiki

Yesterday on my routine walk, I encountered lots of unselfconscious people.

First, an emaciated young Hari Krishna devotee wearing a monkish wardrobe suddenly took off his shirt, revealing his scrawny chest and exposed ribs. Then he began to mumble a mantra; and in a trance-like state, he passed by me, evidently unaware of my presence.

As I was approaching the Ala Wai Boulevard, I saw a middle-aged man running backward on the sidewalk abutting the polluted Ala Wai canal. Even though he looked at ease as he maneuvered dangerously close to the edge of the waterway, I was so apprehensive about his safety that I couldn’t watch him anymore.

Rounding the bend, I saw a much younger man who was boldly walking ahead of me. Despite the heat, he wore a ski mask with a tangled hank of rainbow-colored hair sprouting from a hole at the top of the covering. Above his baggy pants he wore a frayed yellow short-sleeved T-shirt over a faded red long-sleeved flannel shirt. He strode onward, confidant in his outlandish outfit.

Near the end of my route, I saw a sturdy old woman across the street furiously running in place while she waited for a red light to change. Her legs almost banged against her chin. I hoped that she wouldn’t hurt herself as a martyr to her strict regimen, but she was unfazed in her frenzy.

Just before I reached my Leisure Heritage condo, I spied a jolly elfin homeless person effortlessly pushing a super-sized shopping cart that overflowed with his bulging trash bags. There wasn’t enough room for both of us to pass one another on the sidewalk, so I graciously stepped aside on the grass. The man was so pleased with my courtesy that he grinned, vigorously nodded his head, and stomped his feet in apparent delight.

Henry David Thoreau in Walden proclaimed that he admired nonconformists: “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.” Well, Thoreau would appreciate the spectacle of unapologetically odd folks populating the streets of Waikiki.

schlomo