“Nearly Pau” is a life technique, a philosophy that’s abidingly optimistic. “Pau” means completed, by the best way, in Hawaii. Carried out. Over. Previously. “Nearly pau” is a zen-like acceptance of the fleeting nature of minor inconveniences.
“Pau hana” means work is finished, actually, but it surely additionally embodies the time of day once we can loosen up into ourselves, freed from the temporal troubles of working life. “Nearly pau” is an expression of optimism.
I marvel on the energy of the phrase “virtually pau”. It affords hope. It guarantees an finish to struggling, a world freed from no matter discomfort a given second or a given day might maintain. It’s what will get me by means of airport layovers or different journey snafus that appear inevitable after I fly, regardless of my finest efforts to arrange. (The airport bar helps for that, too.)
I keep in mind clearly the primary time I heard the phrases “virtually pau”. My hanai brother had simply clocked me within the brow with a picket baseball bat (I keep in mind that sound, too). I wasn’t paying consideration. I needed to present him a cockroach I’d discovered with out noticing that he was working towards swinging a baseball bat. My dangerous, for certain. We had been, possibly, 5 years previous.
The nurse within the ER stated, “OK, OK…Nearly pau,” as she swabbed the welt over my proper eye. I think about I used to be sobbing. “The physician’s gonna are available and repair you proper up. You’ll be house for dinner,” she cooed. Six stitches.
“Nearly pau.” The phrases had been therapeutic, proper there in triage at Straub Hospital. The ache would finish. I’ve by no means forgotten these phrases or how efficient they had been on a semi-conscious post-toddler a number of a long time in the past. They calmed me then, and I exploit them now to muddle by means of. I discover myself utilizing them on household canines who’ve kennel cough or IBS or no matter and must be force-fed their drugs.
I say it to bartender mates in the midst of a tough shift, to mates enduring a transfer to a brand new place, to nieces and nephews struggling by means of what feels to them like a semester that may by no means finish. “You’ll be a senior subsequent 12 months! You’re virtually pau!”
“Nearly pau” signifies that stress free moments are quickly to return. It signifies that struggling is momentary, that candy aid is simply across the nook. It helps me be affected person with terrible drivers on the highway, with impolite customers on the grocery retailer. “This can finish.” It’s a motto, a bumper-sticker, a t-shirt, an unironic espresso mug for the workplace (we guess, we work from home).
The other of virtually pau is “What? Not pau but?” It’s a not discrete approach of claiming, “I’ve put up along with your nonsense for lengthy sufficient.” Individuals from Hawaii know nicely sufficient that the query is rhetorical, that no reply is predicted. When you hear it, you’ve got exhausted the endurance of whomever requested it. And whomever requested it’s more likely to say “Nearly pau” to consolation others. The tip of unpleasantness is anticipated.
We right here on the HAT Weblog wish to recommend to Hawaii guests that embracing the idea of “virtually pau” is a good way to actually “reside aloha”. It encourages calm. It affords hope. It guarantees a greater future. And we are able to all use a few of that, irrespective of the place we reside.
There. All pau!
Posted by: Jamie Winpenny
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