Haole - (Pronounced “How-Lee”)

If you have ever traveled to Hawaii, then perhaps you have come across the term “Haole,” a derogatory term used by native Hawaiians to describe white people. The word haole means “without breath, wind or spirit”; a colorless absence of spirit and feeling; an inability to appreciate beauty and dignity.

In native Hawaiian culture, hugging and embracing are critically important to the formation of lasting bonds. Upon greeting another, Hawaiians traditionally hugged each other tightly, taking deep breaths into the nose so that the other person could feel the rising and falling of the chest and the other person’s breath against their face. White people were called “haoles” because their hugs were brief, fake and breathless (without breath).

Intense intimacy is the most fearful of human experiences and love is primarily the absence of the fear of intimacy. If you think about the people you’ve been most intimate with in your life, whether family member or spouse, it is likely that your most intimate interactions involved feeling the rising of their breaths inside their chests or the feeling of their breath against your face. For parents and children, as well as lovers, this manner of forming bonds is critically important to emotional growth. As has been pointed out in nearly every great Scripture, the connection between our mind, body and soul (the “nervous system”) is made through the breath.