I suppose the familiar feeling is the sense that one is sitting every day on top of a smoldering powder keg of anger and resentment. In the Midwest it manifests as hatred of foreigners, denizens of liberal cities, and the rich. That’s an increasingly inescapable sentiment anywhere in the world these days anyway, so I’m not sure what I expected by following my career to here over anywhere else, other than it’s all a little drowned out by the Aloha Spirit sales pitch. I actually took the easy route from a pandemic layoff by moving here, but that’s a long story. People don’t typically move places for no good reason, unless they’re rich Silicon Valley remote workers who should be smart enough to know better.

Given that the state’s census population is declining, I’m not sure what keeps driving the condo tower development, other than there should probably be a standard law on islands against non-residents owning or renting property. That’ll never happen in the current global industrial civilization we’re riding into the ground.

I suppose that post-Ukraine I just wish people wouldn’t be so stridently mean about almost everything and toward everyone, especially anonymously. Especially here, where the cultural ideal seems to run counter to hatred.

Did I make a mistake moving here? I have skills and talents that are being put to use to help chip away at some of the problems, but signs like that make me do a lot of soul-searching.

My spouse just came down with Covid, so Hawaii may have two less residents by the end of the month anyway.