山村訓長但知覓

Not too long ago the Sanchon Hunjang was invited to dinner. When the Sanchon Hunjang showed up, it was quickly decided that relaxing in a bar would be preferable to more clothes shopping. I couldn't have agreed more. As soon as we sat down, 영란 started talking. It seems that, in addition to being a world- class 수다장이, she also is quite a believer in fortune tellers and has been to so many that she has become a semi-fortune teller herself.

She went on and on about Chinese zodiacs and the characteristics of people that have different signs as well as how those people get on with others. For example, she said, oxen are very patient animals. But if they get upset then they become very dangerous. Not to mention that they don't get along with tigers at all. This was all in response to the marital problems that one of the company was having. Tigers and oxen just don't get along. If you had asked your 궁합 to a fortune teller before you tied the knot, then you wouldn't be in this mess. Now that you've made your bed, just sleep in it. Your ox husband is suffering just as much as you are, but he's patient. Don't push him past his line, or you'll really regret it.

The Sanchon Hunjang protested. Surely this is quackery. How can every individual born in a whole entire year share the same personality traits? 영란 explained how the Oriental cosmological approach to fortune telling is not 100% accurate, it represents a primitive type of statistics. But that it is startlingly accurate in most cases. People born in the year of the tiger just tend to be pushy nags that drive their bovine husbands too far. I want to see the data set that was sampled to produce that statistical result. Nevertheless, in the interest of harmonious conversation, the Sanchon Hunjang held his tongue.

It was then that the silent KA spoke up. You know, my son was born in the year of the ox. When I went to the hospital to deliver him, I took the doctor aside and said, look since this is the year of the ox, he must be born after the sun goes down. I don't care what it does to me or my health--even if it kills me--you must do whatever it takes to see that he doesn't see the outside of a womb until after sundown.

The Sanchon Hunjang had no clue what could drive such apparent insanity. It was explained as follows. Since the ox is a beast of burden, the lot of the ox is to work all day and rest only at night. Therefore, anyone who is born during the day in the year of the ox is damned to a life of hard labor and precious little rest. If, on the other hand, said soul is born when the ox is at rest, she is guaranteed a life of ease. I still can't believe that a youngish woman who was born and raised in Seoul could still hold such backwards beliefs, and with such passion. But there she was.

Days later in an amazing coincidence of conversational direction, I discovered that this belief is not an isolated thing. BY said that her grandmother reassured her using a similar logic. Since tigers hunt and go about at night, to be born at night in the year of the tiger is a horrible fate. But since her mother had suffered long and hard to make sure that she was born right after lunch, she was guaranteed an easy life. BY's response wasn't really gratitude, though. Grandma, this is the twentieth century, where are you cooking up these wierd superstitions? That was more my speed.

It may be too late to change your fate, but best look up what hour you were born and check it against your Chinese zodiac sign. At least that way you'll know why you seem to be fated to work your fingers to the bone.