Thursday, May 10, 2012

Metal Goat

Today is a Metal Goat day. Influential characters born in a Metal Goat year:


Marcel Proust, writer of heavy tomes.

Charles Dickens, another writer of thick books.

Cult leader Jim Jones 

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev

The Soviet Union also dissolved in a Metal Goat year (1991)

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Fire Tiger

Today is Fire Tiger day. Lots of strong characters born in Fire Tiger years:


Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro




Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat Sen



French composer Erik Satie




American poet Allen Ginsberg






American musicians Miles Davis & John Coltrane 


 
Lady Gaga


French postmodern theorist Michel Foucault

Friday, May 4, 2012

Wood Ox

Today is a Wood Ox day. Solid characters born in Wood Ox years:


Composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Composer Georg Friedrich Handel (1685-1759)

Civil rights leader Malcolm X (1925-1965)

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1925-)

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Wood Rat

Today is a Wood Rat day. These people were born in Wood Rat years (lots of writers):
 William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
James Baldwin (1924-1987)

George Sand (1804-1876)

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

Yukio Mishima (1925-1970)

Jimmy Carter, George HW Bush and Scarlett Johansson were also born in Wood Rat years.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Water Pig

Today is a day of the Water Pig. These people were born in a Water Pig year:

American photographer Diane Arbus (1923-1971)



English composer John Dowland (1563-1626)



American essayist / philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Friday, March 23, 2012

Water Goat

(Young Kafka with a sheep and in his 20s)

Today is a Water Goat day. Franz Kafka, born in the year of the Water Goat (1883), was one of the most influential writers of the 20th Century. His work is often read as a cypher for the neuroses of the modern age ("Kafkaesque"). Kafka was known to his friends as a gentle and caring person, but had a tortured inner life that he expressed through his writing. Many of his stories have a suffocating atmosphere, and involve protagonists who hopelessly try to negotiate everyone's needs.

Water goats are probably the most likely to be sacrificed, or sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Many of Kafka's stories end with the image of a sacrifice: In "The Judgement", a father orders his son to drown himself and the son complies, declaring his undying love for his parents. In "The Metamorphosis" Gregor Samsa, who has turned into a giant cockroach, dies so that his family could go on with their lives. In "The Trial," Josef K. is ritually slaughtered by agents of an obscure Law, perhaps taking the guilt of an entire society on himself.

As a German Jew in the waning days of the Austro-Hungarian empire, before and after the First World War, Kafka was aware of his precarious place in society. His letters reveal an overwhelming sense of obligation to family and partners. He lived with his parents until the very last year of his life, working in a workers' accident insurance company and writing during the night. He constantly suffered from real and imagined illnesses, sought out spa treatments and "natural" cures, and was obsessed with cleanliness. Despite his low opinion of himself, Kafka is not only known for his writing but also for introducing reforms to  workers' injury compensation policies that have remained to this day. 

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Another way of thinking about the 5 elements...

Wood is the child, still unformed, doesn't know anything but just enjoying everything and taking it all in.

Fire is the rambunctious teenager, still doesn't know anything but thinks it knows. "Don't tell me what to do, because I know what I want!" "And what is that?" "I don't know! Stop bothering me!"

Earth is coming into adulthood, getting married and buying a house, etc. Doing practical things.

Metal is the midlife crisis. "What is the meaning of all this?" Selling the house and moving into an apartment, searching for what's important, getting rid of inessentials.

Water is old age, or realizing it doesn't matter anyway. Someone who has been stoic their whole life may become sentimental in old age. A second innocence that develops when it seems you've lost all trace of innocence. Old people are especially fond of grandkids... and so it goes back to Wood.

The Wood Rat is the baby rat, the Fire Rat is the teenage rat... etc.