I don’t know much about the hula, its rich culture, traditions and practices. I am just a privileged observer. I do know, however, when I have seen magic and beauty.

I first knew it when I fell in love with a blue-eyed Hawaiian hula dancer at the Pearl Harbor Officers’ Club when I was just a teenager. She flirted with me with her eyes, whispered that she loved me with her smile, embraced me with her grace and beauty and thrilled me with her sensuous movements, her hips and hands as she floated over the stage. I was enthralled. I longed to experience it again.

I did experience it again when Taizha Keakealani Hughes-Kaluhiokalani, our 2019 Miss Aloha Hula, performed her auana at the Merrie Monarch Festival last week. She is a lovely vision and a beautiful representative the people of Hawaii can be proud of. Wow! She made this senior citizen feel alive again.

Nelson S.W. Chang

Kaneohe

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