October 21, 2023:
Cook died here. Kealakekua Bay.
We hike around the outside of Hikiau Heiau at Napo'opo'o, respecting the handwritten sign reading KAPU. Sacred site. No trespassing. Snorkel at the Cook monument twenty yards or so from the spot where he was killed. Contemplate the hike down and up the sheer two-thousand-foot cliff, which, with current post-lockdown states of fitness cannot possibly be on our agenda. Not mine, certainly.
Cook's combination of respect, patronization, and ferocious need for control reminds me of much contemporary leadership in the business world where I work. Where Cook's context was explicitly tied to ideologies of racial superiority — whether conscious or unconscious is really not relevant.
Hearts of darkness.