Island Skill Gathering

Howzit! John D. Waiheʻe served as governor of Hawaii from 1986 to 1994. After his terms, he joined a law firm housed in a downtown building where I had accepted a program development gig with Executive Director Phyllis Meighen — the nonprofit then called, Winners at Work. I often road the elevator with the Governor (security in front), and he would greet me with the usual, Eh, how you, Wal-lay, how you doing today? He remembered my name although it had been a year since he confirmed my acceptance on the State Rehab Advisory Board. (Super power = name recall.) One afternoon while waiting on my Handivan, the governor entered the lobby and called out his usual Wal-lay greeting, then shook my hand; he pulled me close. Look at the Nu’uanu drizzle; go outside fo’ smell ’em. U’a is life! I thought, Geez, such a politician even on a rainy Friday afternoon. But he was cagey: the governor had just applied a bath of cologne. And on my ride home, I kept pondering the scent I had acquired. Ohh, I realized, Waihe’e! With an invisible baton of perfume he had imprinted a notion I still carry today: U’a is life!

And so is politics....

Da kine, be kind, Wally Soares