{"id":109657,"date":"2025-04-02T12:53:28","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T18:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=109657"},"modified":"2025-04-02T15:46:24","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T21:46:24","slug":"deeper-into-polynesia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/04\/deeper-into-polynesia.html","title":{"rendered":"Deeper into Polynesia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Laie's<\/a>
The entrance to the Hawaii campus of Brigham Young University in L\u0101\u02bbie, O\u2019ahu
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Monday was our last full day in Hawai\u2019i, and we spent it quite thoroughly immersed in Polynesiana. \u00a0As I mentioned previously, we spent some considerable time in the Bishop Museum<\/a> in Honolulu, which is the Hawai\u02bbi State Museum of Natural and Cultural History. \u00a0Founded in 1889, it is the largest museum in Hawai\u02bbi and apparently \u00a0has the world\u2019s largest collection of Polynesian cultural artifacts and natural history specimens. \u00a0(I\u2019m not sure how it compares, in that regard, to Te Papa \u2014 officially, \u00a0The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa \u2014 in Wellington, New Zealand. Te Papa<\/em> is M\u0101ori for \u201cthe treasure box,\u201d and that museum certainly lives up to its title. \u00a0I think that I\u2019ve been there three times, and it\u2019s always a high point.)<\/p>\n

But back to the Bishop Museum in Honolulu: \u00a0In addition to its comprehensive exhibits of Hawaiian cultural material, the Bishop Museum holds more than 24 million natural history specimens. \u00a0The entomological collection alone represents more than 13.5 million specimens (which makes it the third-largest insect collection in the United States). \u00a0In other words, the Bishop Museum is a very impressive place, and some visitors to Hawai\u2019i, if they decide to take a break from the beach, might enjoy it.<\/p>\n

However, we didn\u2019t spend much time on the natural history collections there. \u00a0Instead, we devoted the largest part of our limited time to its exhibits on ancient Polynesian religion and culture, which I found absolutely fascinating \u2014 and frustrating. \u00a0Why frustrating? \u00a0Because even a full day in that section of the museum alone wouldn\u2019t be enough to fully take it all in, and because I simply don\u2019t have the background knowledge to adequately appreciate what I\u2019m seeing.<\/p>\n

This is my problem in all great museums of any size. \u00a0The British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the Israel Museum \u2014 they\u2019re all wonderful, and they\u2019re all overwhelming. \u00a0Exhilaration and despair.<\/p>\n

From the day we arrive on the planet
And, blinking, step into the sun
There\u2019s more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done
There\u2019s far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some atheists of my acquaintance like to argue that endless immortality would eventually grow unendurably dull. \u00a0Well, since my current mortal grasp of concepts like infinity and eternity and heaven is feeble, at best, I rather doubt their claim. \u00a0In any case, I think that I\u2019ll wait to confront that problem, to cross that bridge, when I come to it. \u00a0For the meanwhile, though, I can\u2019t imagine ever growing too tired of life to want at least one more healthy day, to see a place that I\u2019ve never seen before, to hear music that I\u2019ve never heard before, to meet people that I\u2019ve never met before. \u00a0And if and when all of the nooks and crannies of Earth are exhausted, there will always remain Mars and Neptune and Proxima Centauri and the galaxy of Andromeda. . . . \u00a0I like the Latin motto featured on the Bond family crest \u2014 both historical and fictional: \u00a0Orbis non sufficit<\/em>, \u201cThe World Is Not Enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
The Byodo-in Temple (\u5e73\u7b49\u9662), Oahu \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We also spent a fair amount of time on the floor of the Bishop Museum that\u2019s devoted to the ultimately rather sad history of the Kingdom of Hawai\u2019i and the Hawaiian monarchy. \u00a0I need to learn more about this royal line, whose names still appear throughout the islands. \u00a0I own and have enjoyed reading a reprint copy of King David Kal\u0101kaua\u2019s 1888 book The Legends and Myths of Hawaii<\/i> \u2014 he was the last king of the independent nation, and its penultimate monarch \u2014 and have always been interested in his sister and successor, Queen Lili\u02bbuokalani. \u00a0In fact, a (to me, rather poignant) story about Lili\u02bbuokalani even figures in a column that I wrote for Meridian Magazine<\/em> back in 2022: \u00a0\u201cThe Surprising Latter-day Saint Connections in Hawaii\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Lili\u02bbuokalani\u2019s overthrow and subsequent house arrest and the abolition of the Hawaiian kingdom, largely at the hands of American businessmen (who were, many of them, the children of the early Protestant missionaries in the Islands), does not, to my mind, rank among the more noble or honorable episodes in the history of the United States.<\/p>\n

\"Heber<\/a>
The temple in Laie, Oahu, Hawaii, adjacent to the Hawaii campus of Brigham Young University, where Matthew Bowen teaches and Sharon Gray works (LDS Media Library)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a visit to the beautiful Byodo-in Temple<\/a> en route \u2014 a brief Japanese Buddhist<\/a> (that is, non-Polynesian) interregnum \u2014 we spent our afternoon and evening at the Polynesian Cultural Center<\/a> in L\u0101\u02bbie. \u00a0We took in several shows in the villages, ran unexpectedly into a family who were visiting from our ward back in Utah, ran unexpectedly into the parents of Neal Rappleye<\/a> (the in-laws of Jasmin Gimenez Rappleye<\/a>) who are soon to finish serving a mission in Hawai\u2019i, had dinner with our friends Sharon Gray<\/a> and Matt Bowen<\/a>, and attended a performance of the Center\u2019s spectacular nighttime Polynesian show, \u201cH\u0100: Breath of Life.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 Very enjoyable.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, I\u2019ve referred here in a previous post to a new documentary \u2014 as yet unreleased \u2014 about the Polynesian Cultural Center and the students who work and perform there, particularly in the evening show. \u00a0The documentary is entitled Sharing Aloha; A Backstage Look at the People Behind Hawaii\u2019s Most Popular Attraction<\/em>. \u00a0The filmmakers who created it generously shared a copy of it with me and I was able to watch it before actually going out to L\u0101\u02bbie. \u00a0I\u2019m looking forward to its release. \u00a0The details of that release are not yet quite settled, as I understand matters, but I\u2019ll try to notify people here when\u00a0the documentary comes out, because I liked it and hope that many will see it. Sharing Aloha<\/em> will be especially meaningful, of course, to folks who have visited the Polynesian Cultural Center or who are planning to visit it, but I think that others will find it interesting, as well. \u00a0In the meantime, here is a link to the trailer for it: Sharing Aloha; A Backstage Look at the People Behind Hawaii\u2019s Most Popular Attraction<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Before we left L\u0101\u02bbie and drove back to Honolulu, we went over to the adjacent campus of Brigham Young University \u2013 Hawai\u2018i and past the L\u0101\u02bbie Hawai\u2018i Temple. \u00a0It was nighttime, of course, but it seemed to me that the temple was at least as beautiful as I\u2019ve ever seen it. \u00a0I wondered whether the lighting might have been a bit different than before. \u00a0It looked otherworldly \u2014 which, of course, is entirely appropriate.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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