I look forward to a feline year. Nimble, compulsively sanitary, aggressive and playful; this sounds a lot better than a bloated herd animal whose flatulence are so plentiful and noxious they even threaten our climate. Yep, I expect in almost every way it’ll be nice to set the tiger loose.
Living in China, there’s a kind of purgatory that takes place between January 1 and the end of Chinese New Year celebrations. Not a lot happens in the country during that six weeks or so, everyone looks forward to the upcoming week-long holiday; and if they can, people put off decisions of all kinds. This is particularly great for us foreigners, because it provides an extended grace period before we really have to pony up and at least pay a little lip service to or New Year resolutions.
As I sit here looking out my apartment window and the rockets’ red, white, blue, green and yellow glare from the fireworks lighting up the city, I’m taking stock. I’m not exactly sure what my resolutions are, I still have over a week before I really need to commit. Like everyone else I suppose I just want to be a little bit better in a few small ways - drop a few pounds, make a little more money, be a just a little happier and successful.
In thinking about these things it struck me that there’s a lot of wisdom in the Chinese zodiac and its cycle of twelve animals. I am a Rat; that is, I was born in the Year of the Rat. Now I’m not a particularly superstitious person, but I find it fairly interesting that I happen to be a very good example of a Rat, according to www.chinesezodiac.com:
Rats symbolize such character traits as wit, imagination and curiosity. Rats have keen observation skills and with those skills they’re able to deduce much about other people and other situations. Overall, Rats are full of energy, talkative and charming but they have a tendency to become aggressive.
Also, in their careers, Rat’s are:
…extremely perceptive and wise, Rats can focus on the big picture. That ability along with their good judgment enables Rats to solve problems before they arise. Rats focus on titles because titles translate into status and money; two motivating forces. Rats make excellent bosses. Routine halts their creativity so Rats need flexible positions that allow creativity.
And,
They can at times be tense, aggressive, and full of nervous energy, conditions that can lead to stress.
What I find fascinating about this is that I have taken a few personality/work style-profiling tests and they more or less are accurate, I guess. But a lot of money could have been saved and a few over-priced corporate trainers could have spent their time doing other things if I just told them I’m a Rat and we all moved on. In fact, I think I’ll start putting “Rat” on top of my resume and save some HR departments a lot of hassle.
That was my first point about the wisdom of the Chinese zodiac, it actually seems to know what it’s talking about. By the way, I’m also a Leo, but if I waited until August to write about that if would be a boring blog post.
My second observation is that the Chinese zodiac is cyclical. That is a tautology, I know, but in the West we see our solar calendar as has having a beginning and an end. The years go by in a linear progression, one replacing the next with ever mounting expectations of progress. For example, 2010 is supposed to be better than 1910, right?
In the Chinese lunar zodiac, the animals come back around again; so to roost one might say. The Year of the Ox sucked, well too bad, because it’ll be back again in 2021. In my experience, that’s not something many Westerners think about much, the endless cycle of the nature and the universe - where as it's built into China’s most important festival.
The nice thing about paying attention to cycles is it can help you avoid repeating some of your mistakes. I think that’s why the Buddhists place so much emphasis on reincarnation, if you know you are going to live your life over and over again, you tend to think twice about a doing a lot of stupid stuff that’s going to comeback to haunt you.
So, where does that leave me with my resolutions? I’m not sure, but I hope I’m not making the same resolutions again next year.
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