Family Affairs and other matters

Gung Hei Fat Choy.  It is Chinese New Year.  I went out for a chinese meal to celebrate on Friday night.   I miss the excitement of being in Hong Kong during this major festival.  My daughter had a lion dance company come to her school.  She said the last member under the costume cocked it’s leg at the headmistress, which is something I haven’t seen happen before.

In China the Tiger is indisputably the king of animals.  In Chinese astrology he possesses a divine armour, his marvellous striped robe.  He is the chief of all animals and is responsible for the protection of children against the evil spirits.  We should not approach the Tiger as a rival, but nevertheless respect his strength.  They are considered to be loyal, courageous, enthusiastic and generous and brilliant at work but only if their own master.  Tigers adore wandering about at random without knowing what to expect.  To tempt fate and to take chances.

In my book, there is a section on a Tiger and the five elements…water, fire, etc.  There is a section entitled “Tiger/Wood”.  Interestingly it says “Wood is equally the symbol of passion, violence and even destruction and self-destruction.  The Tiger/Wood is thus an ambivalent person.  Beneath his peaceful exterior his spirit is stirred by excessive and explosive impulses.  For this reason others will find his behaviour strange and often disconcerting.  If you go too far you will end up an anxious Tiger, turning round in circles in a cage of your obsessions and hallucinations.  The stage attracts you, the limelight awaits you, the crowd’s eyes are fixed upon you”.

Oh dear.  His parents SO should have called him something else.  Other Tiger celebrities include Beethoven, Ho Chi Minh, Marilyn Monroe, Oscar Wilde and Steinbeck and um, Builder Bloke.

Lets hope it will be a good year.