Fred Bail, my PhD advisor at the University of Hawaii, loved to walk on the beach near his home in Waimanalo, Hawaii. He called the ocean and nearby Koolau Mountains his “church.” On January 17 (2019), while on his daily walk, Fred collapsed and died. He was a big Bostonian, with a wide grin and twinkling blue eyes. I was stunned to learn of his passing. Fred was only 74 and much too full of life to be gone.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Fred and wanted to share the memory from 2006, when I attending the Hawaii Educational Research Association conference. Fred and I were guests at the home of Mike and Chris Kirk-Kuwaye on the windward side of Oahu. We had had a lovely dinner with lots of laughing. (Typical for time spent with Fred). The conversation turned towards philosophy (also typical for Fred) and Fred said:

“What if enlightenment isn’t some place you ‘get to’? What if enlightenment is actually a series of pings?”

He went on to explain what he meant. Pings were these brief, pure moments, when you realized the perfection of what was. They were like a soap bubble. Fleeting. Momentary. Impossible to grasp.

And I remember when Fred mentioned this, thinking about the previous day, and recalling a clerk in a restaurant who gave me a heartfelt smile along with my order. PING! Yes, that definitely was a ping. A stranger projecting a namaste-kind-of-love to another stranger. Perhaps Fred was right and that enlightenment is a series of these pings.

I surely hope when Fred was walking in his “church” on January 17, that the last thing he felt was “PING.”