I don't have much claim to Hawaii since my family only lived there for a few years, but places make an impression on people even if you're only permitted to visit temporarily. Because of my now minimal knowledge of Polynesian culture and the tradition of flowers in the hair I can not wear a flower behind my left ear until I'm "taken." Symbolically, single women wear flowers behind their right ear. As much as this is rather antiquated and not from my own cultural background, just knowing that fact keeps blooms firmly behind my right ear. Random facts just resonate with me--the way you're supposed to hold chopsticks and never leave them sticking out of your rice bowl, or the history of blue doors in the South. I just can't shake those tidbits of information and they change the way I dress, or eat, and want to decorate my house. In college I often tucked fresh flowers behind my ears before class in the morning (only to be dismayed at how wilted they looked by the end of the day). This particular hair pin is a preserved orchid and my sister bought it for me many birthdays ago from a market on the Big Island. At the moment it's a rather optimistic accessory hoping for spring blossoms to match...
CONVERSATION