GOOD MORNING

A FEW DOWN

Another One To Go

make it a good one

-------

.. So it has come down to this: our cultural reckoning of annual episodes - as if something stopped yesterday and something starts today.

Le Penseur

.. The machines of the universe grind on. The winds blow, the sun shines, the snows come and go, the recycling of all biological stuff continues and all is continuing constancy. Yet we choose to stop something and start something else: curious.
.. We're not fooled by the rationale for our midwinter revels. We know that today has only an artificial status as the first day of a "NEW YEAR." Tell it to the Chinese.
.. The upcoming year of the dog, (4710,) begins on February 16, 2018. Another beginning and another ending. Such are the bits of cultural audacity. The mental ordering of sequential events are seemingly chopped short every 365.2422 days. So be it: we'll play.

狗

.. In most reckonings now is a time of stock taking and resolve based on accumulated evidence from the past.
.. In this cultural milieu we have "New Year's Resolutions." In the Chinese way they have a two week celebration consisting of spreading money around and eating well, (not a bad way for it to be.)
.. 恭喜发财 to you. Resolutions are not as big in the orient as they are here.
.. This might have something to do with the fact that in early Christianity the first day was used to reflect on the past and vow to do better.
.. In the Orient it's best not to repeat the past or reflect too deeply on it. After all the cyclic nature of existence will bring it around again. Just do the best that you can  --  in all instances. There is a realization that no real sundering of past events from the present reality or future occurrences is sensible or comprehensible.
.. A new age for the occidental Christian started about 2018 years ago. and each year was finite and encapsulated.
.. So resolve to "DO BETTER" at something personal.
.. Better manners, better fishing, better catching, better at weight loss, better at gathering wealth, and all things better from a personal perspective. It's as if the past is not connected to the present or the present to the future.  My, my.
.. Most of the various Chinese peoples provide new year wishes for others to have health, wealth, and good fortune.
.. In the Chinese fashion we have had a wish for our president - but the golf club wouldn't fit.
.. For our own thought we wish for the understanding that this is as good as it gets in this cycle, (apart from petty concerns of money, position, advancement, status, ego satisfaction, and all other things valued so highly by fly fishers and other plutocratic sub cultures in our society.)
.. So we wish for you a Happy Disconnected Future  --  free from all past influences. May you be richer, happier, and more healthy than ever before. May you catch all the fish you set out to catch. May you have no worries or anxieties. May all your dreams come true.
.. For us we'll plod along with the frustration of fishless days, bills beyond our means, fatness of the midriff, slowness of stride, anxieties about the health of our water, and fears about the health of the American Rule of Law and and it's vaunted democratic republic  --  one vote for each citizen - HAH!
.. We have no resolutions  we do have a wish: to live a few more healthy years with fewer fishless days and more loving friends.

-------

WALLPAPER:   A NOBLE CONTINUING TRADITION