whybother?

A couple of friends of mine are ‘into’ astrology. I know what star sign I am, and I pretty much know the star signs of those I love. That is the full extent of my knowledge. Daz recently found a website that gives a profile of each individual based on their date of birth. I have no idea what the website was, I just tried to have a look and came up with nothing. He received it as an email. Anyhoo, as strange as it sounds, it was pretty damn accurate.

My point is, that I have recently discovered (thanks to my New Age friends) that because Mollie is an Aries, and I am a Libra, we are destined to butt heads. Forever more. It can’t be helped, it is predestined. We simply cannot communicate with each other without an interpreter (Daz). Anyone reading this may well scoff, but it is SO true! Just tonight, for example, Mollie and I were having a conversation. We were talking about the same thing, but coming at it from totally different points of view. It was not a discussion or an argument. She was telling me about something she had done, and I could not get my head around it. From her point of view, it made perfect sense. She knew exactly what she meant. I had no fucking idea. Not a clue. We ended up in an argument, because I could not understand why she did what she did, and when she tried to explain it, I didn’t get it. Darren intervened (God love him) and explained to me what she was saying. Only then, when he used language I could understand, did I get it. It even kind of made sense. The way she speaks, and the way I hear her (or listen to her) and the way I speak/the way she hears me are not compatible. Never have been. It’s been a constant source of frustration to both of us. Now that I am aware of it, I can TRY and use different methods to understand her. It’s only taken 10 years! I’ve always known there was a problem, but now I have a ‘label’ for it: oppositional star signs! Or whatever you like to call it. The thing is, it is now a known problem, not a case of butting heads!! So I feel better.

My friend Sara has allowed me to borrow a couple of her astrology books. It is her hope (she is an Aries and has a Libran mother) to give me the information I need that will allow me to bridge the gap. She would love to be closer to her mum. But they do not understand each other. Never have. Oh, this sounds SO familiar!! Funnily enough, my mother is also an Aries. Do we understand each other? Not even slightly! Are we even on the same planet? I don’t think so, and this is one point on which I think we would agree. I have started reading. Another friend has also given me some tips on how NOT to communicate with an Aries child. What is her star sign? ARIES!!! She listened to an argument between Mollie and I the other night, and when Mollie left the room, she explained to me why I would never win the argument from Mollie’s point of view. She told me that the more I nagged and carried on, the more Mollie would dig her heels in and go her own way. We’ve always joked that Mollie doesn’t need to go to school because she already knows everything, but apparently that is a well-known trait of the Aries child: they do, in fact, know everything, and will go out of their way not to do as they’re told because they damn well know better! I’ll never forget a tiny, 3 or 4 year old Mollie. We gave her her very first watch and we were trying to teach her to tell the time. She wasn’t having any….she KNEW how to tell the time, and no way known could we convince her otherwise. Interestingly, we never did teach her……she literally seemed to pick it up through osmosis. And I am not talking ‘digital’ time, but actual, big hand, little hand, time! Weird. Likewise reading. We read to her from conception. Daily. Hourly. Nobody ever taught that child to read. At two, she could recite entire books: word for word, speech patterns, voice modulation, the whole works. Sure, she was repeating parrot fashion, but eventually she must have looked at the words, because she could read before she went to school. She came home from kindergarten with a ‘home reader’: a little book with big pictures and small words. She read it, without missing a beat, on the first night. So I made her read it from back to front (I know, I’m a bitch!) because I couldn’t believe it. Then I made her read random words, just to be really sure. Socially, not so good, but intellectually, she could have gone straight to 1st or 2nd grade!

Apparently, this is a true Arian quality. Who knew? Oh, the angst we have both suffered. If only I had studied astrology earlier in the piece. I may have been able to conceive at a time that would allow me to give birth to a child with a COMPATIBLE star sign! God, my daughter could be my best friend (shudder). Anyhoo, according to the astrology bible, Mollie is: open minded (not sure about that), enthusiastic (hell yeah!), individualistic (from a young age, her grandfather coined the phrase ‘we don’t explain her, we just enjoy her’), Outspoken (well, she is my daughter!), alert (hmmm…), ambitious (not so much), candid (you could say that, don’t know where she gets it from ha ha), generous (tick), and quick witted (yes, but not always in an appropriate way…). The not so great characteristics include selfishness (well, you know, it IS all about her), quick tempered (no comment), impulsive (you did WHAT?), impatient (again, who does she get that from?) and lacking in direction. Let’s see, I’m 33 years old, I’ve had a dozen different jobs, it took me 6 years to get my degree, I wonder who am I to criticize that particular aspect?  Apparently Arians love action, coming first, challenges, championing causes and spontaneity. No arguments there! Funnily enough, they don’t like waiting around (who does?), humouring fools (complimentary headbutts!), admitting failure (hello?), tyranny (oh, that’s why she won’t do as I say!), and taking advice from others (see: knows everything!!).

Ok, end of lecture Aries 101. I just found it interesting, and it certainly has given me something to think about….