Lunar New Year of the Dragon

Today, February first, is the Lunar, or “Chinese” New Year. So we begin 2022 over again. Again. This year will be the year of the Tiger. Somehow I thought this was the year of the Dragon, but I see from my google search that I am sadly mistaken.

Still, the Tiger is awesome. It is the mascot of the school I grew up in, and the mascot of my son’s school. The Tiger is the King of the Beasts in several Asian mythoi. Those born in the year of the Tiger are considered natural leaders, rebellious, short tempered, outspoken, preferring to lead rather than follow.

When I was young (I mean like, when I was five or six) I believed myself to be a “natural born leader.” I was woefully misguided. And I spent a few years lamenting that, mourning in effect the loss of my ego self image. Oddly enough, when I gave up wanting to be a leader, I became one. Then when I got to thinking maybe there was some hope in life, everything fell apart. Now I know why.

I was born during the year of the Pig.

So people born during the year of the Pig are honest, genuine, and sincere. They have a “heart of gold” and are “most admired.” They are called upon when advice is needed and are always willing to give a helping hand. Sounds pretty good, I hope I’m a little bit like that. But I can see why nobody would follow such a person. “Seek his advice, but don’t follow it. He is honest….what a dummy!”

Evidently the whole wallowing in mud thing isn’t in the cards. I was hoping I at least had one redeeming quality.

At the beginning of Gregorian 2022, I wrote a blog post about New Years Resolutions. (I think two people read it, thanks ya’ll!)

https://wordpress.com/post/tiredmidnightblogger.wordpress.com/59

So far the only New Years resolution I’ve even vaguely worked on was to be down to two hundred pounds by May eleventh. So far….I’ve gained three pounds. But a New Year is celebrated because we hope. We hope for a better year. We hope the weather is better, we hope we meet the girl (or guy) of our dreams. We hope this year we actually have the stuff it takes to become the person we always hoped we would be.

All too often, the year rolls by, and we are no closer to our goals, but we are a year closer to death.

While I still read a lot of success books, there are so many times I’m tempted to toss them all in a bonfire. There is a certain level of poverty and misfortune that is crushing. “You can do anything you set your mind to.” That is not true. I can set my mind to jumping to the moon all I want, but I’ll never go there. “Yeah, but Kennedy got us there.” And that is true. It’s truly hard to know how to respond to that without sounding like a prick. Humankind has done some amazing things. And I would be the last (though not the first) to mock our accomplishment in going to the moon.

In my heart, I want to encourage you to work on the New You for the New Year. And it may be that all we can do is survive another one. But sometimes survival itself is a hero’s journey. When so much of the world seems hell bent on destroying you, just the fact that you survive at all without descending into murder and madness is enough to give you the right to walk with your head held high.

So in this Year of the Tiger, you be the Crouching Tiger. The King (or Queen) that maybe nobody sees, but you know what you are in your heart. Don’t give it up, don’t let them take that from you.