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Byron Edgington

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Blogs by Byron Edgington

Tom Wolfe was right
6/17/2013 5:12:20 AM

Nice place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit.
As much as we might wish to recreate a part of our past, it never works out. A recent return visit to Kauai proved it for my wife and me. As I wrote in The Sky Behind Me, Kauai is a magical little island, filled with the most exquisite of nature's wonders, exotic plant life, ideal temperatures, a steady trade wind that cools the land all day and night and a relaxed, almost forced indolence that takes some getting used to. Kauai is as close to paradise on earth as there might be.
But going back wasn't as enthralling or comfortable as we'd hoped. We looked forward to revisiting old spots--favorite hole-in-the-wall greasy spoons like Hamura's on Kress Street in Lihue for Saimin and Lilikoi pie for dessert, Kilauea Point on the North shore and the lighthouse there, Maha'ulepu Beach with its savage coast and its singing rocks that chant their mournful hymn with the crushing tide. They were all different. And the difference was seeing all the abundance and exotic bounty through the eyes of a tourist as opposed to viewing it as a resident. We experienced a twist on the old adage, 'nice place to visit, but...' Kauai, it turns out, is a nice place to live but I have no wish to visit. In the book, I touched on the slow, leisurely pace and seeming indifference to outside interests among the local people. Hawaii has an education system that commonly scores near the bottom among the fifty states. I mentioned the antagonism local Hawaiians have to the pace and frenetic activity of folks in LA, or New York, or even Ohio. Bumper stickers on the island say 'slow down, this ain't the mainland.' Living there, the laid-back attitude and languorous pace was pretty easy to take; it went along with the rest of the experience. Being immersed in it as a tourist after seven years away gave me a new understanding of it, an insight that, for all its beauty and appeal, island life doesn't suit me. I need the intellectual stimulation and continual mental challenge of life in a city with its demands, variable seasons and inevitable chilly winds.
Everyone should see Kauai. But living there takes an ability to slow down that I seem to lack. Aloha means hello, and goodbye as well. Guess I'll always be a haole.

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More Blogs by Byron Edgington
• Off Ramp: Weekly Short for 12/01/2014 - Saturday, December 6, 2014
• Weekly Short Story - Saturday, November 15, 2014
• The Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life, $1.99 for Kindle - Tuesday, November 4, 2014
• The Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life, 99 cents for Kindle - Sunday, November 2, 2014
• 99 cent sale starting 11/7 - Monday, October 27, 2014
• Interview: Mike Petersen, Killer Book Marketing - Tuesday, October 14, 2014
• Audio Review_The Unheralded King - Sunday, October 5, 2014
• Audio Book Reviews - Wednesday, October 1, 2014
• SkyWriting: Essays on the Art and Craft of Aviation - Tuesday, September 16, 2014
• Silent Sky: From 9/11/202 - Thursday, September 11, 2014
• Great stories and a chance to help - Monday, August 25, 2014
• The Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life, $4.95 for Kindle - Saturday, August 23, 2014
• SkyWriting: Essays on the Art and Craft of Aviation - Monday, August 11, 2014
• Book review: There I Wuz - Monday, August 4, 2014
• Lip smacking mystery - Tuesday, July 22, 2014
• Book review: The Silver Star - Saturday, July 5, 2014
• Book Review: Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses - Sunday, June 29, 2014
• Free author promo - Monday, May 19, 2014
• Looking for flying tales - Wednesday, May 14, 2014
• Nerds of Ohio unite! My review of Best of Ohio - Friday, May 2, 2014
• Pilots/Crews I need your stories - Tuesday, April 29, 2014
• FREE Download--excerpts from SkyWriting - Monday, April 28, 2014
• I'll publish your flying story - Monday, April 28, 2014
• E-book just .99 cents - Saturday, March 8, 2014
• My aviation memoir is on sale this weekend, March 8/9, just .99 cents Saturday! - Friday, March 7, 2014
• e-book sale this weekend - Wednesday, March 5, 2014
• The Sky Behind Me, 99 cent sale - Tuesday, March 4, 2014
• Call for submissions - Thursday, February 13, 2014
• Catching up - Thursday, February 6, 2014
• Brrrrr! - Monday, January 6, 2014
• Radio Interview tonight - Wednesday, December 4, 2013
• Is it done yet? - Wednesday, November 27, 2013
• Writing a memoir? Check into this: - Friday, November 15, 2013
• From where I sit - Tuesday, November 12, 2013
• Daily Very Short Writing Tip - Thursday, November 7, 2013
• 'To be' or to find a better verb... - Monday, November 4, 2013
• Take a hike! - Thursday, October 31, 2013
• to publish or not to publish - Wednesday, October 30, 2013
• The Sky Writer - Friday, October 25, 2013
• Free sample of The Sky Behind Me... - Thursday, October 17, 2013
• The new world of PCS - Wednesday, October 16, 2013
• Hump Day--Getting over the himp from writer's block - Wednesday, October 2, 2013
• The Three 'tells of book promotion - Monday, September 30, 2013
• We're all mad here--writers take heart - Thursday, September 19, 2013
• How to get the writing off dead plumb: The Writer's Tool Box - Monday, September 16, 2013
• Smashwords author interview 9/5/13 - Thursday, September 5, 2013
• writers, you may want to stand up for this - Tuesday, September 3, 2013
• Writers: Rights, responsibilities and reinventing the flat tire. - Thursday, August 29, 2013
• How to write good - Monday, August 26, 2013
• Book trailer: The Sky Behind Me... - Friday, August 23, 2013
• Author (Self) interview - Thursday, August 22, 2013
• Common Core Standards: Back to Literature? - Tuesday, August 20, 2013
• George W. Bush and other mistakes - Thursday, August 15, 2013
• welcome home - Wednesday, August 14, 2013
• Book review: Bargain With Fate Book RTwo Sage trilogy - Tuesday, August 13, 2013
• I love Harry Reasoner - Thursday, August 8, 2013
• Readin', Ritin' and Wreal Estate--book selling & uts challenges - Tuesday, August 6, 2013
• Book review Friday: Dementia, by Hans Peter Braendlin - Friday, August 2, 2013
• I'm a writer--I write. Sometimes I rant. - Thursday, August 1, 2013
• Memoir as travelogue - Monday, July 29, 2013
• Small presses are back - Thursday, July 25, 2013
• New Book Project: The Emergent Sky - Tuesday, July 23, 2013
• The book biz--short version - Monday, July 22, 2013
• What do you want? - Thursday, July 18, 2013
• The Sky Behind Me at half price--add value - Tuesday, July 16, 2013
• Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics - Monday, July 15, 2013
• Blog is my co-pilot - Thursday, July 11, 2013
• ridiculous to sublime - Wednesday, July 10, 2013
• commo, criticism & culture in Asiana 214 crash - Tuesday, July 9, 2013
• Asiana 214--poor weather might have prevented this accident - Monday, July 8, 2013
• Book Binding - Friday, July 5, 2013
• Notable deaths 4th of July - Thursday, July 4, 2013
• The Blue and the Gray - Wednesday, July 3, 2013
• Life Du Soleil - Monday, July 1, 2013
• takeoff part 2 - Friday, June 28, 2013
• Takeoff - Thursday, June 27, 2013
• Decorative English - Tuesday, June 25, 2013
• To leak, or not to leak... - Monday, June 24, 2013
• Separation of church and state - Friday, June 21, 2013
• Plus ca change... - Thursday, June 20, 2013
• book promotion - Wednesday, June 19, 2013
• Tom Wolfe was right - Monday, June 17, 2013
• ...can't treat stupid. - Friday, May 31, 2013
• Birds do it, bees do it... - Thursday, May 30, 2013
• Aviation & Medicine--safety last? - Wednesday, May 29, 2013
• Happy Birthday GKC - Tuesday, May 28, 2013
• day of remembrance - Monday, May 27, 2013
• Lady Hooker, my initiation ceremony in Vietnam - Friday, May 24, 2013
• distribution - Tuesday, May 21, 2013
• Marriage Equality: Cleared for Takeoff - Thursday, May 16, 2013
• dead monk seals in Hawaii - Monday, May 13, 2013
• Free download - Thursday, May 9, 2013
• Free sample - Tuesday, May 7, 2013
• May 4th 1970 - Saturday, May 4, 2013
• Entitle-tude - Thursday, May 2, 2013
• dateline Columbus OH: 5/01/2313 - Wednesday, May 1, 2013
• How to Fly Good #4 - Monday, April 29, 2013
• aviation--a very small club - Thursday, April 25, 2013
• Traveling Light - Tuesday, April 23, 2013
• Marathon Bomber - Monday, April 22, 2013
• women in aviation - Friday, April 19, 2013
• Aviation and life: Shared conundrums - Wednesday, April 17, 2013
• Misperceptions & helicopters--How to Fly Good #3 - Monday, April 15, 2013
• Helicopters: A Primer - Thursday, April 11, 2013
• Justitia - Wednesday, April 3, 2013
• You gotta laugh - Tuesday, April 2, 2013
• opening day 2013 - Monday, April 1, 2013
• Fearless - Friday, March 29, 2013
• Equality under law - Monday, March 25, 2013
• Once a missionary, always a missionary - Friday, March 22, 2013
• ten years--and for what? - Wednesday, March 20, 2013
• come to the hills - Monday, March 18, 2013
• stones - Thursday, March 14, 2013
• Lucy & the football - Wednesday, March 13, 2013
• Separation of church & state - Tuesday, March 12, 2013
• Escape Fire - Monday, March 11, 2013
• Cycles are things we ride, like it or not - Friday, March 8, 2013
• Iraq + 10 years - Thursday, March 7, 2013
• A book at the public library - Wednesday, March 6, 2013
• A Radical Idea - Monday, March 4, 2013
• Power Rangers - Tuesday, February 26, 2013
• Take a starving writer to lunch - Monday, February 25, 2013
• Our legal code is 200,000 pages--Cyrus Cylinder 1,000 words - Friday, February 22, 2013
• A note on a napkin - Thursday, February 21, 2013
• New Book Project - Wednesday, February 20, 2013
• TWSB The World's Shortest Blog, Post #1 - Tuesday, February 19, 2013
• Memoir starts with 'Me.' - Monday, February 18, 2013
• Violence against women - Friday, February 15, 2013
• Reading - Tuesday, February 12, 2013
• Three months from today is S.A.M.E. Day - Saturday, February 9, 2013
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• February is Heart Month - Thursday, January 31, 2013
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• Current events - Tuesday, January 29, 2013
• Challenger-- "...a major malfunction." - Monday, January 28, 2013
• This old house - Saturday, January 26, 2013
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• No Sex Riding Rockets - Thursday, January 24, 2013
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• Cure for blank sheet syndrome - Tuesday, January 22, 2013
• Inauguration Day 2013 - Monday, January 21, 2013
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• Branding - Friday, January 18, 2013
• Book reading/signing - Thursday, January 17, 2013
• Writing is the easy part - Wednesday, January 16, 2013
• Writing contests--Scam or Opportunity? - Tuesday, January 15, 2013
• The Big .99 Cent E-book sale - Monday, January 14, 2013
• Unintended consequences - Saturday, January 12, 2013
• The power of words - Friday, January 11, 2013
• Boys will be... Excerpt from Chapter 11 The Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life - Thursday, January 10, 2013
• Why we write memoirs - Wednesday, January 9, 2013
• The Big TSBM 99 cent sale! - Tuesday, January 8, 2013
• Nobel Prize for Literature - Tuesday, January 8, 2013
• Air Medical Accidents - Monday, January 7, 2013
• Byron Edgington Bailey Prize winner for prose in 2012 - Sunday, January 6, 2013
• Looking Back--Looking ahead - Saturday, January 5, 2013
• OOOPS - Friday, January 4, 2013
• Featured New Release - Thursday, January 3, 2013
• Whither Serials? - Wednesday, January 2, 2013
• HNY '13 Don't 'should' on yourself - Tuesday, January 1, 2013
• Hauoli Makahiki-ho (Happy New Year in Hawaiian - Sunday, December 30, 2012
• Old man and the scythe - Thursday, December 27, 2012
• Excerpt from The Sky Behind Me, a Memoir of Flying and Life - Wednesday, December 26, 2012