"NOT IDEAS ABOUT THE THING BUT THE THING ITSELF"

It's Saturday morning in Beijing.

As of last Thursday, Pluto is no longer a planet. With Pluto's expulsion, we now have not 9 but 8 planets in our solar system. Basic facts like those printed in text books are changing everyday. Century-old mathematics problems regarding the shape of the universe are solved and new mysteries abound (why is Perelman rejecting the Fields Medal?)

Academia evolves our understanding of life everyday. That is why learning and the pursuit of knowledge is meaningful and important in of itself.

In astrology (big shift), Pluto signifies transformation, particularly the dark underbelly of it, the death aspect without which it would not be, as without death there is no life. For me, Pluto is in my 9th house based upon my birth chart, or the position of planets and constellations in the sky at the time and relative to the place I was born. The 9th house is the travel over great distances/large bodies of water, so for me, travel is transformation.

Regarding astrology, I used to think along the lines of the following: as the moon moves the ocean into high and low tides, etc., certainly it affects me, but human beings don't understand. Then I had a birth chart read, by a stranger who was a well-regarded astrologer. Well, my jaw was on the ground, how much could be known about me based on my birth chart.

I believe these are metaphors for my life, some keenly useful, some less so. My trip is my time to step back and look and think more deeply about my life, about metaphors, about about.