Overview:
When we go about our daily lives, we ought
to realize something interesting: to many Native
Hawaiians, the land is not just land—the
land is an identity. One example might be Kahoolawe,
which itself becomes such a magical, important place,
that it almost becomes a heroic place—ranking
up there like the land of Avalon for the Grail knights,
Utopia for Thomas More, the Pure Land for the Jodo Shinshu
Buddhists, just about any place that has heroic qualities.
The purpose of this essay is to identify either a place
or a prized possession that serves as your hero: a place
or a thing that makes you just feel so glad to be alive,
or a place that makes you want to improve yourself.
If that place or thing inspires heroic behavior, then
that's probably the place to write about for this small
unit. One of the things I want you to learn from this
short unit is that we ought to cherish places (before
they get bulldozed and become yet another Public Storage
locker) and things (before they get broken, lost, or
destroyed and make us buy a new one)
I suppose that the best way to approach this essay
is to really think about how you would feel if this
heroic place / thing were taken away from you, or, if
you identify with people who support Kahoolawe, if that
place or thing were bombed/destroyed as Kahoolawe was.
Student-Learning Outcomes
Consider a place or thing (tangible or intangible)
that you consider heroic, however you interpret that
adjective.
Produce vivid sensory descriptions—active, objective,
subjective, figurative—so as to best illustrate
the place or thing depicted.
If desired, produce an encomium
or poem for that place or possession.
Samples of encomiums can be found online or within
your text.
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