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Charlie and Samadhi Butterfly: 'Maui is the healing plane for the universe.'

Paradise Found

Former Detroiters are living the good life on Maui.

HARVEY GOTLIFFE
to The -Jewish News

speriot

24

FRIDAY, JULY 7, 1989

he oil-streaked engines on
the cramped, propellor-driven, 19-seat
DeHaviland Otter rhythmically whir
as the small plane hovers 1,500 feet
above the waves. Slowly, it descends
to Hana's miniscule airport on the
eastern tip of Maui.
The 600 people in the vicinity of
Hana-town know each other. They
meet at the post office, at Hasegawa's
General Store when they gather sup-
plies for the week, or when they stop
their four-wheel drive vehicles in the
middle of the road to share the latest
news.
The latest news could be three
weeks old to Charlie Butterfly, his
wife Samadhi, her sister Misha
(Charlie's first wife) and her husband,
Dennis. Their Eden-like retreat on 12
lush, tropical acres filled with banana
and mango groves is another 40
minutes beyond Hana, past the Seven
Sacred Pools and a lifetime or two
removed from Detroit where they
grew up as Charlie Rosen and the
Usher sisters, Beverly and Reva.
Charles Rosen seemed to have the
topical Jewish resume. He grew up in
the Dexter area, attended Durfee,
Hutchins, Central. Moved to north-
west Detroit. Attended Mumford. Var-
sity football. Bachelor's degree in
business, Wayne State University,
1959. Married Reva Usher. Two
daughters, Victoria and Stephanie.
Owned the right home in Farmington
Hills. Ran a lucrative accounting
practice.
Today his legal name is Charles
Butterfly. He floats around his se-
cluded corner of the world wearing
shorts and rubber boots, his hair
pulled back in a ponytail. He and his
wife, Sam, wake at 4:30 a.m., light
tall candles in even taller mayonnaise
jars and greet each day with yoga and
meditation.
In the late 1960s, 31-year-old
Rosen became restless. "I was sear-
ching for a place I felt I could live my
life as I saw it, in peace." He and Reva
looked at Florida and California. In
the early 1970s, he became involved
in transcendental meditation. Slowly,
buildings became confining. In 1974,
Rosen discovered Maui.
When he found Maui, Rosen sold
his practice, divorced his wife and left
his two young daughters in Detroit
and went to the island. He lived in his
VW bus before moving up to a tent on
a two-acre parcel. Now he's Charlie
Butterfly and a resident of a comfor-
table dwelling where his and his ex-
wife's families live side-by-side.