An offering to Ganesha

Photo by David Lansing.

At the Starbucks closest to where I live the barristas have taken to glueing down their plastic tip jar because twice in the last year thieves have just walked off with it. So it amazes me to see all these little roadside stands selling backyard fruits—avocados, mangos, strawberry guava—on the honor system. Yesterday I stopped at a stand selling bouquets of ginger plants and bird of paradise that had a little woven basket in front with a handwritten sign that said “Please Make Your Own Change.” In the basket was fifteen or twenty dollars. This on an island where every beach has multiple signs posted warning you not to leave anything of value in your car.

This got me to thinking about the trouble I’ve been in with the Hindu gods ever since I took a couple of forbidden photos of the temple at the Kauai Hindu Monastery. Maybe there was another way to appease Ganesha and his pals. Afterall, what you’re supposed to do for the Remover of Obstacles is leave an offering of fruit or flowers for him before you visit the temple so why not visit a roadside fruit stand and make my own little offering?

So this morning I pulled my car over on to the side of the road in front of a modest little house with a broken down trailer in front of it that somebody had modified into a fruit stand. In the back of the trailer was a wooden cabinet, covered with corrugated tin, that said FRUITS and beneath that a sign with an arrow pointing to a little slot that said DONATION and leaning against the trailer was another sign that said GOD BLESS U.

Perfect, yes?

There wasn’t much in the way of fruit at the fruit stand—five or six avocados and some past-their-prime papayas. But I didn’t care because I didn’t really want the fruit. On an envelope from my hotel I’d written FOR GANESHA and inside I put a five dollar bill and slipped it through the donation slot. And left. With just one of the avocados. Hoping I’d finally appeased the gods.