Silly Old Pig...

Floyd and I went to the US Embassy in London last year to complete some adoption paperwork and celebrated by sitting down for some scrumptious dim sum in London’s Chinatown. After devouring our rice noodle rolls, pork dumplings and sweet, sticky black sesame seed thingies, we slowly ambled (so as to not upset the delicate balance in our distended tummies) across the street to a little shop selling paper lanterns, Chinese videos, porcelain figurines and the like. We wanted to buy something to commemorate the trip because, at that time, we thought we were SO CLOSE and every little event felt like something we needed to commemorate. It was right around Chinese New Year and we knew that our daughter would be born in this year, the Year of the Dog. So Floyd picked out this lovely, little rose quartz doggy on a pink thread. Very precious (if you disregard the fact that it’s just about the right size to get lodged in a small child’s windpipe) and very appropriate. I couldn’t find anything that seemed either precious or appropriate so, as we’re headed to the cash register, I find this little plastic, gold pig with a small piece of already stale chocolate inside, and I decided it was precious and appropriate enough (at least it’s large enough that it can’t get lodged in a small child's windpipe). But it was NOTHING compared to the pink dog. We keep them both in a little corner of our dressing table and I sometimes look at them and think...cool dog... silly old pig....

But I learned something the other day (I know, wonders never cease). I was on this on-line writers forum that an internetty friend of mine writes for and she wrote this great article that made me feel all kinds of wonderful. It turns out that not only is this next year The Year of the Pig, but it’s also the Year of the Golden Pig! Really?!! Well this is almost as cool as the Year of the Little Plastic Golden Pig that Holds Stale Chocolate. Our purchase of the silly old pig is starting to make sense now but, most importantly, it makes me feel like Thor is a little closer to us.

There's a lot of talk about how children born in the Year of the Golden Pig will be more fortunate and make loads of money. There's also mention of how Asia's birthrate is going to skyrocket this year. I also realize there's a lot of controversy about this so-called Year of the Golden Pig, for example:

According to Chinese astrological calculations, 2007 is really not the year of the Golden Pig but the Fire Pig. The lunar calendar has a 12-year cycle of animals that runs along a cycle of “Five Elements”—metal, wood, fire, water, and earth. Notice there is no gold here. Perhaps since fire is red (related to money in Chinese tradition) and yellow (the color of gold), 2007 has also been heralded as the year of the Golden Pig.

Fire Pig? Golden Pig? What. Ever. This is all background noise to me. I’m stuck on the relevance of the little plastic pig that we bought in the Chinese market. Did I mention that it feels like Thor just got closer?