2025 ushers in the Year of the Wood Snake, providing us with the opportunity to shed the old and embrace the new. The Economic Times tells us “Snakes are traditionally seen as wise, strategic, and mysterious.” Personally, I can’t think of a better time to open the way for wisdom and sensibility. Hate is running hot these day, as is fear and anxiety. Regardless of your past voting record or lack of one, the avalanche of recent executive orders was probably enough to fray anyone’s last nerve. If like me, you are part of that most vile group, ‘the intellectual elite’, or you just lean towards humanitarianism, you are desperate for a full breath of untainted honesty, a quality not currently found in the White House, so, holding this image of  “the Snake shedding its skin, representing the opportunity to renew oneself, embrace new possibilities, and leave behind outdated ways” might be the only way forward. (Economic Times)

There is no question of my privilege. White for starters, educated through two advance degrees, with a career in education to boot. There is some balance in the fact that I am a woman, and a lesbian; although I have always felt pride in both, there is a marked denigration for either in our dear United States. But it is with pride that I have and will continue to conduct myself, and certainly did so when I walked into a public school building for 31 years, and did in fact require my students to read fat books with complicated stories, and by doing so tackle social issues still coursing through our modern day discourse. We examined the anti-intellectual bias found in Crime & Punishment, the power of public hysteria in The Crucible, the lure of ambition in Macbeth, insidious racism in Invisible Man, and self-doubt in To the Lighthouse. I encouraged conversation. I asked for text to validate opinion. I valued intellectual curiosity. Far from the shame of such a moniker, I rewarded originality and creativity as students showed themselves. This is all to say, being a student, a person who reads and questions, is a worthy endeavor, and despite the negative connotation extended to the concept, one might consider exactly why from the beginning of time you have been told to fear knowledge and to hate those in search of it. I don’t know if the snake is the wisest of the 12, but “They are known for their sharp minds, problem-solving skills, and an ability to navigate complex situations” (Economic Times). Bring it on! The whole world needs snake energy.

As we move forward in the Republican reign, there will be plenty of opportunity to lose our dignity. Those of us with ties to the GLBTQ community, Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, Asian and other people of color, undocumented immigrants, people with lower incomes, or any underrepresented people, will struggle as we witness the side-stepping of the “tech-billionaire-broligarchy” now running our government. The snake offers us resilience. We will need it.