New Year 2008 Sites and Sights

I have been pondering the New Year by web surfing to gather the ideas of other people, hopefully smarter and better informed than I am. Along the way, I have gathered a few blogs and websites to share with you.

First, please visit Ronni Bennet’s fabulous blog about aging and ageism, her travels, Ollie the Cat, the weather in Maine and sundry topics. Time Goes By is a permanent link at left. Her new year’s column is a meme list. Ronni threatened to give up her well-read column a short time ago, but thank goodness, the warm response from her readers has staved off this prospect. Thank you, Ronni Bennett, for the good reading.

Second, discovered only yesterday, Robert Wilkerson’s Aquarius Astrology – Global Astrology is subtitled “Using Astrology, Spirit, and Archetypes to move and groove through the intersections of fate and free will." I don’t understand most of the astronomy jargon, but he creates a more complex perspectives on planetary relationships and uses archetypal imagery that can appeal at a deeper level. You can find out some planetary prospects that go beyond fortune-cookie sayings here.

If you think astrology is bunko, stop by Bad Astronomy. There are many different ways to measure what constitutes a year, so new year’s celebrations are a social convention, rather than the acknowledgement of an uncontested fact of nature.

Those grinches at the Wall Street Journal bah-humbug celebrating 2008. They warn, “Don’t count on a happy new year” as economic analysts read the entrails of the dying year past.

On the other hand, Chinese astrology occultists report the opposite, predicting that the “world economy will boom."

Indeed, why should we of the globally linked world be content with only one new year celebration, when the very fact of a new year is in dispute by scientists of astronomy? Rat-happy Russians with an interest in Chinese astrology are emptying pet shops of the creatures, according to the BBC.

The Rat is the first sign in 12-year cycle. I am an Earth Rat and found instructive information at, of rather unlikely locations, a bridal guide.

There is no effective transition from rats to cherubs and this photo of an art exhibit at the Telfair Art Museum in Savannah, Georgia, that I took in August 2007. The little statues on the stairway represent racial poulation statistical mixes. Unfortunately, I do not remember the details of the exhibit, or the artist. It was the only exhibit that visitors were allowed to photograph. The dozens of cherubs on the steps were a cheerful sight that, one can only hope, symbolizes the blending of all races, ethnicities, religions, political perspectives with respect for each other, peace, and harmony. That is a new year’s dream worth having.