Throughout the content of my posts you fill find poetry and threads of information about retirement, baseball, music, and sports.  I have not yet settled on a single focus.  It’s only been a hundred days since my retirement, as I continue to experiment with the topics that are of interest to me.  I’m not yet sure what you like, since a majority of my comments are spam?  Many of you are not going to care what I do on a day-to-day basis, but writing things down gives me great pleasure.  One of my philosophy’s in life has always been “If you write it down, you do it!”  I’ve always been a list-maker and a diary-keeper.  Perhaps I have a fear of forgetting what I did yesterday.  My adopted Father had Alzheimer’s (I mentioned in an earlier post that ironically I can never remember how to spell it – so once again I had to look it up),  so he lost that precious possession that we each have – our memories.  I have concerns about the disease, but they are not genetic, since I have such limited information on my birth parents.  My wife always reminds me that life is all about creating memories, and that’s why we’re here in Maui for our anniversary.

We are just down the road from Black Rock, a point of significant history here in Maui.  Legend tells us that Kahekill (Thunderer) the last Chief of Maui, dating back to the 1700’s, proved his spiritual strength by leaping from Pu’u Keka’a into the Pacific.  Maybe it was the “kill” in his name that drove him to do this? It’s a ritual called Leie Kawa (cliff diving) continues at sunset each evening following the sound of the conch shell.   Pu’u Keka’a translates to Black Rock, the volcanic peak that is now the site of the Sheraton Inn on Maui.  There is also a Black Rock City, that exists for only a moment in time each year, that most of us know as the “Burning Man” Celebration in Nevada, part of the Black Rock Desert.  I was more familiar with “Burning Man” than “Diving Man” in Maui, so my curiosity got the best of me.

I think we’ll walk the half-mile down to the Sheraton this evening for the festivities.  It is a treacherous looking cliff of black, volcanic rock that sticks out into the Pacific.  They have actually preserved the natural rock throughout the building of the hotel.  I’m sure it was a distinct calling to the early settlers of the island.  I want to make it clear that I won’t be diving tonight!  I might have a drink as they  leave a pathway of lit torches and fling the diver’s target, a lei of flowers, into the water.  I experienced the sharpness of those rocks this afternoon, as I tip-toed into the icy waters of the Pacific.  It’s apparently only 15-18 feet at its highest point, but the prospect of landing on a sharp rock is not worth proving my spiritual strength.