Jerry Astrology

I recently had a chance to read the paper “The Mathematics of the Chinese Calendar” by Helmer Aslaksen[1]. This paper takes a deep dive into the details of how the Chinese calendar is calculated, and also draws some comparisons with the Gregorian calendar, the Islamic calendar and the Jewish calendar. 

The effort and thoughtfulness that our predecessors put into the creation of calendar was absolutely astounding, and this paper certainly helped me appreciate the challenges and the amount of details to look into, in the creation of a calendar. 

Imperfect, yet still beautiful

What struck me most was that despite the best efforts of the ancients over thousands of years, there still isn’t a “perfect” calendar that can properly “track” the passage of time. In the case of the Gregorian calendar, a leap day needs to be added every 4 years to keep the calendar in sync with nature. In the Chinese calendar, an intercalary month (or leap month) has to be added every 3 years to keep the calendar in sync with nature. 

I concluded that if the ancients with all of their wisdom are not able to achieve this perfect calendar, then perhaps there is not perfect “equation” or “rhythm” to life and nature.

As I write this, I suddenly thought of the irrational numbers that we learned in mathematics, such as the number Pi or the Golden Ratio. Irrational numbers cannot be fully expressed in a succinct fractional number, but instead has a long patternless list of numbers after the decimal point. And some of these irrational numbers can be found in nature, particularly the Golden Ratio.

Perhaps nature has always been telling us that despite how beautiful nature can be, it is not perfect, almost but not completely. More importantly, I think nature is telling us that we do not need to be perfect in order to be beautiful.

And I guess the rest of life is the same. I used to seek perfection, such as finding the perfect fountain pen, or finding the perfect astrological techniques. I think my challenge lies not in the seeking, but in the frustration that results from when I fail to find perfection.

Perhaps life isn’t meant to be perfect. Perhaps life is meant to be a bumpy ride, sometimes the bumps are small and few in between, other times the bumps can be jolting and seem never-ending.

It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t find smoother roads, but rather to realise that no road is completely smooth. Perhaps the road we are on right now, despite the bumpiness, is the smoothest we will ever find.

Are we missing out on the company of those in the same car as us, as our eyes endlessly seek smoother roads?

🙏

[1] “The Mathematics of the Chinese Calendar” https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=85268899f59ced99ca671a316f3610fe88286278