Yesterday the kids and I were able to revel in some of the perks of living in an urban metroplex. We took the Goldline down to Chinatown and watched the Chinese New Year's parade.

As far as annual "must do's" I think it's off the list. It was a parade, after all, which entails too many people and too little comfort. However, it was a great excursion.

We met our friends Kathy and Jillian there and we wandered around, bought cheap boxes of snapping poppers, smelled the smoke of the fireworks that were set off intermittantly in the middle of Broadway, and felt the pounding of the drums as they beat out the rhythms for the dragons to dance to.

As icons go, the chinese dragon is one of the best. Eyes lolling out, mouth grimacing in a half-grin, the body sinewy and flamboyant... it evokes a sense of wonder and delicious terror. The dragon is a symbol of auspiciousness and is used to clear out the bad spirits from the old year. The clanging cymbals and beating of the drums are used to scare away negativity and to insure that forward progress can continue unimpeded.

An emerging theme for me this year seems to be space clearing... whether by force or by choice. Things are changing in my life and the process has been unnerving. I hope the dragons do their part to cleanse and purge. I want my inner dragon to dance down the street, pulsating to the drums, delighting and scaring the children.