Catch of the Day

CATCH OF THE DAY

What do Bruce Willis, Quincy Jones, Stephen Curry, Catherine O’Hara, Seal and Albert Einstein have in common? Like me, they were all born under the astrological sign of Pisces.

The 12th sign in the zodiac, Pisces people are those born between the dates of February 19 and March 20. Creativity is one of the traits that characterizes Pisceans and certainly when I look back on my life I would have to say that this is true.

From a very early age, I remember making decorative candles, macrame wall hangings, and wood burning masterpieces. I always kept a sketch book and was a fairly decent painter, had an unquenchable desire to learn about art history, and held seasons’ tickets to the ballet by the time I turned 18. When I graduated high school, it was graphic design I initially decided to study.

I decided early on that I was probably an excellent interior decorator and insisted that my bedroom be painted in three different colours: purple, pink and black. The result was, of course, hideous and it took my mother four coats of paint to cover up the black.

Like most Pisceans, I have always been of two minds; while I like to indulge the creative, “artsy” side of myself whenever possible, it is the left side of my brain that does most of the heavy lifting on a day-to-day basis. When my husband and I were dating, we decided to move in together and started looking for an apartment. Not long into our search, I pointed out that interest rates were low and that since we both had some money put aside, we should buy a house. I reasoned that even if it didn’t work out between the two of us, we could make some money on the real estate. It turned out to be one of the best decisions we could have made.

Very much a creative genius, my husband is constantly coming up with kooky ideas that I feel duty-bound to reign in. Were I not a pragmatic Piscean, we would not share such a symbiotic relationship and he would never have come to rely on my logic and intelligence to help him make better decisions.

Although he values my pragmatism, my husband also constantly teases me about it. He calls it my ‘black and white’ thinking and urges me to try to see the shades of grey. To my mind, there are no ‘shades of grey’. I’ve always had a very strong sense of what is right and what is wrong. Cheating is wrong, lying is wrong, and stealing is wrong. You might wonder what is right? Working hard, trying your best, and being nice.

There is a Piscean characteristic that I have that my husband finds very frustrating: my strong gut reactions to certain people or things. It happens rarely, but there are certain people or situations that I intuitively don’t like. I’m always polite, but have said to my husband on more than one occasion. “I don’t like him” or “I don’t feel good about this situation”.

The question of why is somewhat of a mystery. I am seldom able to articulate my misgivings, but nevertheless am firm in my conviction that I just don’t like it. When I met my husband, he had a friend whom I couldn’t stand. This friend had never been anything but nice to me, yet I disliked him intensely. The friendship eventually ended on a sour note and my husband later confessed that I had been right, that this friend never really had my husband's best interests at heart.

When it comes to socializing, others would probably characterize me as an extrovert. I enjoy spending time with other people and have never been at a loss for friends. Being a true Piscean, however, there have always been times throughout my life that I have an incredible desire to be on my own. I call it my ‘down time’ and if I have been socializing a lot, my brain simply tells me I’ve had enough, that I desperately need to be on my own for a while. I use this time to indulge my favorite passion, reading, and will curl up in a chair with a cup of tea or in bed and single-mindedly spend a couple of days reading.

If there is one characteristic of the Pisces sign that I do often lament, it is sensitivity. All of my life, I have been overly sensitive to what other people say and do. My husband, who takes no offense to anything, is fond of saying, “Let it go. What do you care what other people say?” The problem is I do care. Very much. Things never roll off my back and unlike him, I’ve never been able to take a laissez-faire approach to life. That, I’m happy to say, has never stopped me from trying.

On the question of whether or not I am a true Piscean, I would have to conclude that I am and while I would definitely change one or two of my character traits, I have never regretted that I was born under the astrological sign of the fish.