human-pomorphism. having been born in the year of the horse, i hold within me an innate attachment to horses. this extends to all horses and horse derivatives. normal equines, ponies, unicorns, zebras, pegasus, donkeys (although not so much for this one), llamas, camels, pretty much anything hoofed and vaguely horse-like i feel an affinity towards. so my question is, do other people, born in the year of the snake/rat/cock/bull, feel a similar attachment to their animal signs?

i mean, the horse is a beautiful animal with many obvious attractive attributes -- physically, sociologically, conceptually. but how often do you think people -- regardless of what year they were born -- feel a kinship to sheep? and although each sign encompasses mostly positive traits, what is there to like about being compared to a snake? or is that just western religion talking?

every time i read a profile for the year of the horse, i ask myself "is this me?" and if some of the characteristics fit, then i'm like "dude, i'm totally a horse." but then it makes no sense because how can everyone born in 1978 have the same personality traits as me? wouldn't that mean everyone my age would be similar to each other? george and i were born together and we're totally different. this makes no sense.

the zodiac system seems more logical to me for exactly this reason. grouping people based on months -- and not years -- seems like it would have a better chance of working out. plus the zodiac is attached to the cosmos, and anything has to be within the realm of possibility if based on the cosmos, right? i have one friend whose favorite line is "oh, that's so virgo. we're both virgos, no wonder we're good friends." she says this to me every time i see her. so it really reinforces the idea that i'm more likely to get along with fellow virgos than fellow horses. i'm easily influenced, i know.

but the chinese take this animal stuff seriously. at my grandfather's funeral, we (me, george and my uncle -- twelve years older) couldn't watch him getting entombed because rabbits and horses are mortal enemies. we were maybe twelve at the time and i really couldn't really understand why we weren't allowed to watch. i thought it silly that our animal signs should dictate what we could and couldn't do at a family member's funeral. but that's tradition speaking, and tradition is bigger than any of us. but is it bigger than the cosmos? who knows.

my mom and dad are tiger and dog respectively, which turns out to be a horse's best matches. so maybe there is something to all of this stuff. if that is indeed the case, and the ancient chinese know something i do not, then i should be on the lookout for tigers and dogs. dogs i've seen aplenty, tigers, not so much.