If you think I’m the *first* writer in my family, you’d be wrong. My brother was writing novels, short stories and screenplays for TV fifteen years before me. The TV gig soured him on it, and he turned to music for his creative outlet, but when I picked up the pen, I nervously turned to him for encouragement.
I got it in spades.
My brother insisted that I *needed* to write because creating something original had intrinsic value in the world. He understood the soul-crushing fear – of creating and sharing – but said I had a moral obligation to do it anyway.
Moral obligation? I laughed. Nervously. But I quickly understood. When you hear me preach these things, you have to understand, my brother was my first mentor – my first true writer-friend who understood.
I can’t convince him to pick up the pen again – he’s too into his music. But I’m in love with his latest song – because of the true story behind it and because I can hear the beautiful soul of my brother in it.
Take a listen! (free on soundcloud)
(special tags for my Hawaii-living friends: Rebecca J. Carlson, Crystal Pikko Watanabe, James McCormick)
TRUE STORY BEHIND THE SONG:
In Honor and Memory of Eddie Aikau
(May 4, 1946 – March 17, 1978)
Eddie Aikau was a revered Hawaiian lifeguard and surfer in the 70’s. As the first lifeguard at Waimea Bay on the island of Oahu, he saved over 500 people and lost none. He was a legend on the North Shore, pulling people out of waves and attempting rescues no one else would try. In the ‘80s, the phrase “Eddie Would Go” spread around the Hawaiian Islands and to the rest of the world.
Beloved in Hawaii, Aikau was selected to join the maiden voyage of the Hōkūleʻa in 1978 on a journey that was of great significance to the Hawaiian culture. When the boat capsized in rough seas, Aikau paddled into the sea alone on his surfboard to try and get help for the stranded crew. They were eventually rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard, but he was lost at sea and never seen again.
The effort to find Eddie Aikau resulted in the largest air-sea search in Hawaiian history.