This is going to start off sounding off topic, but will end on topic. I hope it is informative and instructive and not just me reminiscing my adolescent years. I am thinking of the group that will be going to Hawaii and particularly to Haleakala. Some words seem abstract like my name Jim. Some words start off abstract until you get a mental picture of them. Haleakala used to be a nice sounding abstract word to me till one morning on Maui when I saw the sun rising over Haleakala or Hale-a-kala. The word Hale means house. In the economy of the Hawaiian language one word can have a lot of meanings. In English if you wanted to translate Domicile, mansion, house, pili grass hut, you would use the word Hale. The ‘a’ pronounced ah is possessive and makes something belong to something else. Like in the Hawaiian state fish Humuhumunukunukuapua’a the ‘a’ there just before Pua’a (pig) makes it possessive to make the word say the trigger fish with a nose of a pig. Kala also has many meanings like god, sun, and money as in Kala hapa lua (dollar and a half). If you were on the western shore of Maui or most any western location as Haleakala dominates the eastern portion of the island and you saw the sun rise you would not think, “The house of money”. You probably would not think, ”The house of god” because in the western mind as in Christianity, Islam and (Eastern) Buddhism the Gods tend to be male but in Hawaii they are definitely women. The most famous of the Hawaiian goddesses is Pale who is associated with fire and she tends to reside on the big island near Kilauea or where ever there is an active volcano. We also tend to think and to say that the sun rises over a mountain, but no. If you saw this little sun coming up in big Haleakala, it definitely came out of the mountain where it resides. When you say Haleakala now, you can have but one picture; The House of the Sun. Jim Gibson