kcmaui913@gmail.com
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the concept of synchronicity. Merriam-Webster defines it as “the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (such as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality.”
Or, as Carl Jung put it, “a meaningful coincidence of two or more events where something other than the probability of chance is involved.” My favorite description comes from a Psychology Today blog: when “the universe winks and nods at you.”
For example, a song you haven’t heard or thought of in ages suddenly pops into your head for no apparent reason. Humming the tune, you get into your car, turn the key in the ignition and that very song is playing on the radio. This has happened to me more than once. Sure, the fact that I work for (and therefore listen to) a classic rock station might have
kcmaui913@gmail.com
The 2021 Lunar New Year, better known as Chinese New Year, begins Friday. 2021 is the Year of the Ox, or Cow. According to chinesefortunecalendar.com, it is, more specifically, a White Metal Cow Year.
Most folks know that the Chinese zodiac consists of 12 animals, rotating each year. But the entire cycle lasts 60 years, as each year is also designated with one of the five elements: metal, water, wood, fire and earth. Those elements are associated with the colors white, black, green, red and brown, respectively. Don’t ask why water is black and not blue; I also wondered but couldn’t find an explanation.
May you live in interesting times.
If 2020 had been a Hollywood movie, that would have been the perfect tagline. And the sequel, now underway, could be titled “2021: Extraordinary Times.”
Widely and wrongly believed to be an ancient Chinese curse, the statement “May you live in interesting times” was apparently coined less than a century ago, according to scholars and historians, both Eastern and Western. In 1939, the year World War II began, American attorney Frederic R. Coudert made the first recorded mention of the phase. Speaking at the Academy of Political Science in New York, Coudert quoted from a letter he’d received from British statesman Sir Austen Chamberlain:
Kathy Collins
Traditionally at this time of year, news media outlets devote many pages and program hours to rehashing the previous 12 months. As both columnist and consumer, I look forward to recounting the year’s most memorable moments and reading various Top Ten lists. These annual recaps are, for me, an important holiday ritual. I find comfort and cheer in reliving special memories and reflecting on lessons learned.
For my last column of 2020, I had intended to compose a thoughtful message of inspiration and hope; silver linings and all that. Instead, for the past two weeks, I’ve been banging my head against a solid brick wall of writer’s block, hard enough to shatter my rose-colored glasses. After a year of coping with the pandemic, politics, polarization and personal losses, I long for just one more “P” word: pau.