As a visitor, when you arrive in Hawaii, you are often greeted with “aloha,” a word that almost every person with access to reruns of Hawaii Five-O knows, at least loosely. But it’s so much more than a mere greeting, much like singer Billy Joel pines about essence and spirit of New York, “aloha” is a state of mind.

The etymology is all over the interwebs, and just a simple Google Search or Wikipedia look-up away … but really, what does it mean toyou? What does it mean in your daily life? An unknown author posted these responses from 5 year old kids on the internet classifieds site Craigslist, and it had resonance so we republished it:

• My tutu says aloha is the old way, the way people used to be. And also aloha is the way it is today, because it’s the only way to keep the old ways alive if the very, very old people are gone.
• If you swallow a rainbow and some drips out of your mouth when you smile, that’s aloha.
• Even though some people live in fancy houses and have alot of toys, aloha makes us all the same.
• It should be a flavor of ice cream because it’s that good.
• Aloha means I remember you even though I haven’t met you before.
• Aloha means you treat everyone nice, even if they smell bad.
• Aloha is like when a puppy licks your face, only it’s not so sticky.
• Aloha is the way we live.

The last one is the essence of it all … smile, let it DRIP out of your mouth, even though they may be smelly. Aloha!

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