(From February 15, 2018, a Blog post I didn't publish [obviously] revisited now, on June 6, 2026 at my current, tenderized age of 71.5 years. Enjoy!)
"WTF?!" You adroitly muse...well, there is a profoundly, beautiful logic to this:
In the Chinese astrological scheme of things, each person is born under one of 12 Animal signs (Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Boar) and, an "Element" assignation (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water) each of which when occurring together makes for a unique combination which only transpires three times during the course of one's life: the first instance---the month, day and year in which one is born; the second, the year one turns 60 years-old...and, the third, should one live so long, when one turns 120 years-old.
I am a "Wood Horse" born in November of 1954 who has, to date, celebrated 2 instances of "The Year of The Wood Horse." There have been, and will be more, instances of a simple "Year of The Horse," for me (the 12 Animal signs rotate every 12 years) but in my lifetime, only 3 instances of the "Year of The Wood Horse."
The same for you in whatever combination your Animal Year and Element.
It goes without saying that this "centennially +," if you will, tradition of a lifetime lasting at least 120 years is predicated on the common occurrence of most Chinese to have actually lived this long in past millennia when the Chinese astrological scheme was first created, with longevity, especially, occurring the most, out in the healthier, rural areas where people worked hard from a very, young age and always ate healthily.
The belief is, one's first 60 years is one of self-discovery, naturally fraught with mistakes and lack of clarity in one's vision.
But, most of the time, my hair is au naturel and the grey hairs help me convey to these young kids I encounter to KNOW without a doubt how old I am so they will not expect my body to spring as sprightly as it did 30 or 40 years ago...and to stop giving me dirty looks at the check out register because I am carefully putting my receipt/change away in my wallet.
I hope this empowers all of us over the age of 60 to think more as the Chinese have for thousands of years---to honor and revere the wisdom gained by age---as the most attractive feature of a person and in direct opposition to the West's superficial obsession with the years of 18-30 as being some "holy apex," some halcyon period of "overall perfection," which it is, but only on a purely exterior, physical level.
Into this realm, we all come, naked, looking fairly indistinguishable from any, other newborn around the world (read: we are all equally tiny and ugly).
It goes without saying that this "centennially +," if you will, tradition of a lifetime lasting at least 120 years is predicated on the common occurrence of most Chinese to have actually lived this long in past millennia when the Chinese astrological scheme was first created, with longevity, especially, occurring the most, out in the healthier, rural areas where people worked hard from a very, young age and always ate healthily.
The belief is, one's first 60 years is one of self-discovery, naturally fraught with mistakes and lack of clarity in one's vision.
At 60, a person is expected to live the next 60 years in happiness and harmony, each selection made---whether professional or personal---predicated upon wise judgments gleaned from the painful lessons learned in his/her first 60 years of life.
Also, I read of a recent study in which researchers concluded that while aging does bring on the forgetting of useless and/or trivial details (names and dates), a person actually continues to develop superior knowledge in his/her area of expertise; in other words, that particular "learning curve" only gets BETTER and progresses even higher, with age.
We see these silly headlines, like "50 is The New 30!" and I'm like: "No, thanks!" I utterly, enjoy being 60+ and retired, as it were. My dark hair is greying mightily these days and I dig it: sometimes, I apply various old, eye shadow colors (which I cannot bear to discard) to the white hairs on my head to complement whatever ensemble colours I am wearing.
We see these silly headlines, like "50 is The New 30!" and I'm like: "No, thanks!" I utterly, enjoy being 60+ and retired, as it were. My dark hair is greying mightily these days and I dig it: sometimes, I apply various old, eye shadow colors (which I cannot bear to discard) to the white hairs on my head to complement whatever ensemble colours I am wearing.
But, most of the time, my hair is au naturel and the grey hairs help me convey to these young kids I encounter to KNOW without a doubt how old I am so they will not expect my body to spring as sprightly as it did 30 or 40 years ago...and to stop giving me dirty looks at the check out register because I am carefully putting my receipt/change away in my wallet.
I hope this empowers all of us over the age of 60 to think more as the Chinese have for thousands of years---to honor and revere the wisdom gained by age---as the most attractive feature of a person and in direct opposition to the West's superficial obsession with the years of 18-30 as being some "holy apex," some halcyon period of "overall perfection," which it is, but only on a purely exterior, physical level.
Into this realm, we all come, naked, looking fairly indistinguishable from any, other newborn around the world (read: we are all equally tiny and ugly).
We arrive without pockets to hold money and other possessions of worldly "value" and we leave this world all the same, irrespective of what our circumstances might've been between birth and death (in a cardboard box in a back alley or the Presidential Suite of a 5-Star luxury hotel) and...we all die.
We don't know how or when but we do know there's a certainty of it.
We don't know how or when but we do know there's a certainty of it.
In closing, and in keeping with this Sinitic theme, I quote now from the great Chinese philosopher, Master Kong (Kong Qui) more popularly known as "Confucius," with these most precious words of wisdom:
"Do not squander Time for that is the stuff that Life is made of."
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