The Bub in the Belly

It's Ryan's lunar birthday today.

To mark the occasion, we carried out the Chinese traditional ceremony of "Zhua Zhou". We gathered some objects which symbolise something in his future and he is supposed to pick one. So, for example, if he picks a golf ball, he may do something related to sports, eg. be a sportsman or write a sports column. If he picks a pen, he may be a writer.

There was some discussion about whether we could manipulate the results by selecting those objects/professions which we deemed worthy and omitting those which we did not, eg. preparing only stethoscopes (so that he will become a doctor) or omitting the pen (so that he will not become a writer). In the end, we decided that it would not count if we manipulated the game because the game is supposed to reveal what is supposedly already written in his destiny. We concluded that, even if the object is removed from selection, it would not change "fate" and we would end up with an inaccurate glimpse into his future instead, which would defeat the point of the game.

So we prepared a broad selection of objects to cover most of the usual professions - a camera (photographer), a calculator (businessman, accountant), a computer mouse (IT line), chopsticks (chef, hotelier), stethoscope (doctor, nurse), a spool of thread (fashion designer), a golf ball (sports), cash (banker, rich man), a pair of shoes (traveller), ruler (lawyer, judge), dictionary (scholar), pen (writer), stamp/seal (politician, official), paintbrush (artist), CD (music), handphone (communications), screwdriver (architect) and a toy car (driver).

Some say that the game should end when the child selects the first object. We didn't think that this was fair because Ryan might simply pick up the item nearest to him and then throw it away in favour of another item. So we gave him full opportunity to examine whichever and as many items as he wanted.

These were his favourites: golf ball, spool of thread, money and the stamp/seal. So he may become a sportsman/official with lucrative clothing endorsements?

I noticed that he chose the smaller items that he could hold in his hand (ie. he picked those items which he could actually pick up) and he didn't go for the larger items like the shoes and the dictionary. So perhaps the size of the item makes a difference and smaller items have an advantage.

After the game, we served Ryan a chicken drumstick - he is supposed to eat this while having one foot in the house and one foot outside the house - so that he will always have food to eat wherever he goes.