red, lunar & ox

i grew up with emblems related to most things chinese. every lunar new year brings its cache of auspicious sayings, with its vast semantic fields that draw material associations like wealth, prosperity, luck, credit, cash and all things gold and red to our elusive search for happiness. the chinese appear to speak an embroidered language that is deeply couched with meaning. phonetically, this allows speakers to acknowledge hierarchies of rank and file, intent and idea into lettered phrases that may be spoken elegantly in a line or two.

i used to resist the link; that one can be happy simply by receiving an endless accumulation of wealth. i was at one stage, critical of what i perceive to be the 'materialistic' foundations / 'philosophical assumptions' of the chinese way of defining 'goodwill' or 'lunar new year culture.' today, inverted commas mark the terms that sweep this entry. i am careful to bracket them as a way of confronting the relativity of such values inherited over the years. still, money isn't everything. i rather wish for good health, first- for myself, loved ones and friends so that we may continue to reflect and share generosity & goodness with those that come our way. of course, there will be moments when we would rather invest some of that on our personal search for happiness, be it temporal or eternal.

it brought to mind a text i read in uni; keith basso's Wisdom Sits In Places. an anthropologist who specialises in culture and linguistics, basso looked deep into the oral traditions. he identified deep structures in the language spoken by western apache indians and grew to understand their basis for naming places and using soundscapes or personal narratives to infuse spiritual or aspirational content on their own material spheres.

i guess material preoccupations have their place in most cultures. my race's depicted obsession with wealth (painted in homes, on streets and sewn on attire)is perhaps a fuzzy reflection of our own kindled pursuit of contentment and security. we word and speak our best intents, then press into colour the deep tidings we fail to grasp with our hands...