Year of the Dog

Every 12 years, each of us has a birthday that completes a cycle in the Chinese zodiac, that big wheel of time where each year has its spirit animal. So if you were born in the Year of the Rabbit, you will have (with luck) your 12th, 24th, 36th, 48th, 60th, etc., birthdays in another Year of the Rabbit. Each of those 12-year birthdays will occur in a different 5-year cycle of the elements, so if you're born in a metal year, you will cycle through the water, wood, fire, and earth years and on the fifth cycle of 12 years, return to your birth animal and element.

My middle sister, Jeanie Beanie Golly Bert, celebrated her fifth cycle of 12 this past June, right in the middle of the Year of the Dog. I'm too lazy to look up which of the five elements rules this year, possibly because I was born in the Year of the Sloth. I was not able to attend the big surprise party that her cool, thoughtful husband Barney Bert threw for her down in Flower State, but I bet it was fun.

To add to my guilt, I've been carrying around a card (with pictures of dogs) all summer, neglecting to mail it for one reason or another. Which I finally did this weekend, three months late, and don't give me that "It's the thought that counts" bullshit because it's the act that counts. Knowing Jeanie BGB, she noted the slight, took it personally, forgave me, and retained her doggedly loyal, tenacious, devoted, fiercely protective, watchful character, birthday or no birthday, card or not card. I will see her at another family gathering at the end of September, on the occasion of another momentous birthday, and we'll talk. Maybe we'll talk about dogs.

This weekend was also my son's birthday. Jessi Golly was also born in the Year of the Dog, about three turns of the 12-year wheel after his Aunt Jeanie Beanie and therefore a different element, but he has some of the same protective, loyal, tenacious character. I sent him a card, and I talked to him on the phone. He was at a party, having fun among his friends, and his girlfriend Alex had made him a cake.

MoreGardens summer camp is over for the year, and the kids took a field trip to a farm upstate for their culminating camp experience. They got to hang out with the animals, help out with the gardening, had a great meal, and apparently it went really well. Jessi got around to re-assembling his bike, so he's been riding it, and life is good. He won't be at the other family gathering this month, so I'm glad to get to talk to him.

There's no definitive time line for these things. A few years ago, my friend Bay, who works at Old Progressive College and incidentally has a son around the same age, made the observation that Jessi and I were 'friends'. I said no, not really, the father-son relationship was much more tangled than that, but we were still able to communicate on fairly good terms, though I wouldn't call us 'friends'. I guess the wheel has turned enough since then to make a difference, and at this point I would say that Bay is right.