Ma Nian Kuai Le, Happy Year of the Horse

I went to school in the ’60s by the horse farms and stables of blue grass Kentucky where I made myself unpopular by commenting that the horse barns looked better tended than the public schools. Oblivious to the fancy of the Kentucky Derby, I did not notice the tall and long-legged equines by the rails of the corrals at all. The view of the elegant pony unencumbered in its gallop in the free range of the Mongolia grasslands visited a year ago is what I remember most of a horse.

I begin the Year of the Horse by the pony’s well-defined quality of self-reliance and hard work. (I graduated from Texas’ SMU where the mascot is the Mustang, with the Ford company’s car brand introduced two years before I got there!) As I forsake the security, and thereby comfort, of the classroom this transition year, I intend to work hard, be self-confident, self-reliant, and self-supporting in the manner I have prescribed to those within the circle of my influence. I intend to be a faithful mustang!

I have not fallen into the clutches of Chinese horoscopy, by any chance. My use of their metaphors is as much for entertainment as it is creating effective images to enable me to gallop along while others might understand.

I have dabbled a bit in the Years of the Dragon and Snake that preceded the Horse. The dragon does not exist other than in the mind, pictured as a cross between a huge centipede and a snake, often used to depict China’s mighty Huanghe and the Chiang Jiang rivers, so it has clear imaginal value. But the snake is an avoided creature in the West, and being Western-trained, that might be the reason why I do not easily warm up to its coils.

It is the tiger that is most compatible to the horse, and as I saw a member of the Bengali tigers in Sichuan not too long ago, it is understanding the tiger and the horse in the yin-yang context that renders both a jumble of contradictions.

The hardworking horse is characterized as cool but hot-blooded, hard-nosed but humble, impatient but extraordinarily tolerant. Horses cooperate well in groups but each works alone with remarkable energy and concentration.

Those born under the sign of the Horse are good with their hands but engage in any given task, physical, mental and social. They are cheerful, charismatic and sometimes loquacious, even clairvoyantly finishing other peoples’ sentences in conversation. They tend to be, however, the first guest to depart from a social gathering, usually due to a feeling of being too “penned in.”

Horses prefer open spaces but enjoy the camaraderie of pressed flesh at meets and fests like concerts. In personal relationships, they cherish belonging and intimacy but once domesticated, they are dutiful to filial obligations. They remain however, at heart powerfully rebellious creatures that will not be cornered.

Travel is a favored hobby, and horses are known to race off to any far-flung destination at a moment’s notice. As such, those born under this sign are well suited to careers as adventurers, poets, travel writers, and politicians.

I obviously relied from other’s characterization in the last four paragraphs. As should be obvious, the description can apply to almost anyone under any sign, horse or otherwise! Being born under the sign of the Cock, I am appropriating the aforementioned qualities as a matter of choice.

This is to say that I look at the coming year more in fascination for its promise rather than dread for its mystery, whatever the animal signs and the positions of the constellations say. That sentiment fuels the way I get my butt going and moving around.

As a child of the 2014 universe of statistical probabilities, I understand my life to be largely led by choice rather than circumstance. To be sure, one can take advantage of opportunities when they come, and see the new light as a window opens while a door closes. These may sound but scraps of platitude, so let me ground myself to reality.

I first visited Saipan in 1990 and a friend wanted me to return for heaps of mullah waiting to be made in HR, grossly understood then as bringing as much cheap labor as one can, preferably from the Philippines since they understood English, but would not be remiss to exploit the cheaper labor from China. The floodgates that followed extended west into Pakistan, with the worst exploiters those of the same ethnic kind!

There are those who constantly rail at the failure of local leadership because the influx of capital into the CNMI that took advantage of the opportunity for “Made in USA” products into the U.S. market was not guided well. Yo, the window of opportunity was a loophole, exploited on the backs of imported cheap labor, and powered by many hustles, even as business literally depend today on the backs of former garment factory workers to attract R&R of Navy and Marine personnel into Garapan!

Events were not determined by circumstances. They were products of choices, including the choice to rail and wail. This year, I welcome the newness of the unknown. Take your pick.

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