Jackie Chan delivered again in Chinese Zodiac. The 12 Animals.
The East learn to tell fortune from symbols. The West teach others to “read” people. Animals or People. We all want the advantage of foresight the next outcome.
People commit to New-Year resolutions: lose weight, take up lessons in this and that, get off a bad habit like smoking, shopping and swapping old wives’ tales.
Others use the turn of the calendar as a bookend to their failed relationship or business attempt (valley of death).
Good idea. It’s about time. Turn out the lights.
Something never meant to last forever.
Mismatched personalities, mismatched commitments.
The usual: people hurting people in a chain of downward spiral, of self-sabotage.
Those who last are those who never went in deep and are quick at damage control.
Pull out while you still can. Salvage and survive.
As long as you can read the signs and detect the signals.
People and events do send signals (favorable or unfavorable). Semiotics.
We need to know ourselves, when to hold, when to fold.
Enough hurt, enough loss, enough bad tastes in the mouth.
Unfortunately we can only “see” in looking backward.
That’s why people would rather invest in pre-mortem than post-mortem analysis.
That’s why people tell fortune by reading those zodiac, the Twelve.
With Jackie Chan, rumor has it that this was going to be his last picture (at least one which he did all the stunts himself).
For us, we still miss a sign here, a signal there.
Those who are skilled and savvy to detect them will reap a windfall. Others are still in denial even after the facts (that it’s over).
Welcome to the New Year, a bookend to all those missed signs and signals of year past.
Thang Nguyen 555 