This is a sample post, what I might blog if I blogged, which I do not.
Before this story begins, a little disclaimer might be in order. Technically speaking, this story about the Crater is not really about a crater as such, even though pretty much everyone on Maui, Native Hawaiians and new arrivals alike, seems to call it that. Here we’ll do it the local way
Perhaps this “Crater” gets called so because as a phenomenon it is so unique that it’s hard to find a word that does justice both to scientific fact and the inner sense of wonder it elicits. Undoubtedly, this expanse stretching out beneath one’s feet at the mountain top of Haleakala could easily be taken for a crater or, at 7 miles (11.25 km) across, 2 miles (3.2 km) wide, and nearly 2,600 ft (800 m) deep, a small caldera. But regardless of looks, this geological formation, while existing in a volcanic mountain, is not itself of volcanic origin and so doesn’t qualify scientifically as either a volcanic crater or caldera.
Believing this lunar like landscape Native Hawaiians call Haleakalā was formed when the headwalls of two large erosional valleys merged at the summit of the volcano, scientists have come up with terms like “basin” or “depression” as a label, but neither of these terms has ever really caught on outside their community. Maybe most people would rather tell their friends that they went into the Crater last weekend. It can sound better than “I went into a basin” or “I went into a depression.”
In Hawaiian myth, Haleakalā was the place where Maui went, snaring and holding captive the sun with cordage given him by his mother, the goddess Hina, depending on the story’s version. This Maui is not the island Maui but the legendary mythical being from which the island Maui gets its name. Wrestling the sun, Maui folds half of the sun’s legs so the sun is made to walk slower across the sky. In so doing, the earth is warmed, making days longer and so making it possible for Maui’s mother, Hina Nui, the patron of traditional Hawaiian cloth making to finally be able to get her tapa to dry.
Haleakalā means, in Hawaiian, the House of the Sun. The ancient Hawaiians were likely referring specifically to the Crater, this place of myth and legend, and not to the entire mountain as Haleakala does today. Certain Hawaiian elders, I am told, have called the Crater Haleholokalā, the place the sun was released, a meaning closer to the story of Maui and the sun. Clearly we have many names to choose from, scientific and cultural, but for our purposes here on this sample blog, let’s keep it simple and just call it the Crater with a big “C”.
If you ever make it atop Haleakalā and stroll amongst its otherworldly lava formations perhaps you’ll come back with your own name and your own myths or stories. After all every journey and every journeyer is unique. Fortifying the imagination with myth and the intellect with scientific fact can certainly enrich the experience. Still there are times when it behooves one to put all such information on the back burner, clear the mind of all expectations and preconceptions and stroll amongst the Crater’s formations as if you were the first person to ever do so. Maybe you’ll catch something everyone else has missed.
However created and whatever called, the Crater is one amazing phenomenon.
Links: Weather Now on Haleakala Crater Webcam
About creating this post in WordPress
This sample article was created with zero web design rocket science needed. In fact, the WordPress interface used in creating this may be easier than word processing apps like Office, even simpler than some email programs. No coding skills are required, you won’t need any special plugins, nor will you have to dig into the inner workings of WordPress. The picture was added simply by clicking an “Add Media” button.
This is the basics of what WordPress can do “out of the box” after being installed and it really doesn’t look all that bad. If words are more important to your message than looks, then WordPress has really made publishing globally very easy for you, easier than it’s ever been in the past.
In other sample posts we’re going to go beyond the basics a little and add a little more personalized styling. We’ll talk a little about what was done, how and why, and you can decide if those extras are worth the extra time and skill they require. Always keep in mind that these posts can be edited any time. This gives you the opportunity to get your message out even if plain and simple in appearance, knowing later you can go back adding extra touches as your skills develop.