Shanzhai Lu

cool little horoscope for Pisces this month says:

At school, they teach us all to read, to write, to add numbers together and to behave ourselves.

They give no classes in how to develop intuition - or how to build deeper, more meaningful relationships with our fellow humans - or even how to relax and enjoy life without feeling constantly pressured.

No wonder our world is in such a state. We are all urged to value achievement more than empathy and money more than love.

Yet life now offers you a real chance to unlearn all that.

You can take your highest ideals and pursue them with pride and confidence.

woo hoo. unlearning. i like that.

see. i was a mediocre student.

never felt motivated by the belief that my grades directly correlated with my ability to make something out of myself one day.

i cried during my first algebra test in 9th grade because i got automatically stuck in the honors class since i was Susie's sister.

my transcript was a trainwreck and disproves the theory that all Asians are straight A students.

i secretly think part of the reason I moved to Shanghai in the 90s was because you needed street smarts more than straight A's in that environment. i did well and finally made my mom proud.

proud enough that to this day she still says it's not too late for me to go back and get my MBA.

um, seeing as how that involves taking a standardized test, I don't think I'll be doing that anytime soon.

besides, i'm too busy these days.

so many things left to unlearn.

:)