a silly but deep essay, and a bit looney

It's a bit late to say happy new year.

Or is it?

This year, according to Chinese tradition in the USA, the "lunar new year" is Feb. 17th. It's the second new moon since the Winter Solstice. This tradition varies. In some Asian countries, for example, it is the first new moon of the year. So it is actually the soli-lunar new year, because the usual new year's day, or the seasonal year, is usually also a factor in when the lunar new year happens.

To celebrate this lunar new year, which thus is a time closer to Spring, people make lively, pretty and elaborate costumes of animals like lions and bears to wear. People become like animals, and get a bit looney! Each year is given the name of an animal too. It is like a Chinese zodiac, and the "zo" in the word zodiac refers to a zoo, or in other words, a collection of animals. But it has nothing to do with stars or constellations.

This is the Year of the Horse. If I remember correctly there are 12 repeating animal names, just like the 12 signs. It is a calendar system, and each animal in the cycle is supposed to describe or predict the kind of year it will be. I don't believe it's true, although experience has taught me that the other kind of western astrology can work, in which your Moon sign, and New Moons, are important. But I do believe in word play. How else could I write essays for the Band of Writers?

Many of us know that "Mister Ed" could talk. But could he write? I go back to the '60s for a lot of my pop culture. For those who don't know, Mr. Ed was a talking horse on a TV show. My question is, if he talked, did he ever get hoarse? Given the nature of our times, which unfortunately are not the 1960s, or even the 1990s, is it likely that since we are yelling at each other so much, or screaming at demonstrations against our president, that we will get hoarse in the year of the Horse? Do we need to get on our high horse, and speak up? Can we have high hopes again?

Of course, a horse can't speak, unless it's Mister Ed. That was the theme song for the TV show, because "course" rhymes with horse. But I never remember that Ed ever got hoarse. But he remained a horse, of course. And unlike us, his language never got coarse.

Are we being taken for a ride on Mr. Ed this year? Have we gone off course? Or do we need to take one? Can the year of the horse be a basis for any predictions? Will we run out of oil and have to go back to riding horses? Or will we have flying cars? Or at least electric ones? Are we being taken back to the past, or to the future? Should we dress up as animals in hopes we will survive the end of humanity? These are not such good times. We need to mount a horse and gallup off beyond these times, in this year of the horse, and pretend or talk as if they were already in the past, and that we have arrived in a new time, like Spring. It's a technique in self-hypnosis, like getting in touch with our deeper animal and lunar nature. SO-- gitty up, let's go! It's getting late!