Dragons

Dragons of myth and legend are terrifying fire breathing beasts.  For centuries they have been centerpiece in myths and legends across cultures and times.  Frequently equipped with wings and a hunger for humans, these beasts would soar about in the night and consume the innocent.  That is, until a brave soul equipped with the right weapons and tactics would step forward, engage in battle with the dragon and slay it.

These fire breathing beasts who stalked the skies and nightmares of generations of peoples across multiple cultures seems a fitting metaphor for the dragons whom we face today.  The dragons of today stalk the conscious, subconscious and dream world of many people who have experienced trauma, grief and profoundly complex life issues.  If left to themselves, the dragons propagate, and consume part of or all of the unsuspecting villager.  In recent days I have been privileged to witness real courage.  That courage was manifested in those “knights” who chose not to ignore the dragons in hopes that they won’t become the next meal, but to confront them.

It takes courage, real courage to face a physical adversary.  To know that engaging the larger, younger, better equipped physical adversary may result in your injury or death.  Moving toward the sound of gunfire, stepping into the blazing inferno in spite of the heat and fear and rescuing a child or breaching a door during the execution of a search warrant to secure a murderer and evidence for the case are just a few of the things that require courage and steadfast commitment to a cause.  But, I submit to anyone reading this that those are, in fact baby dragons.  Infants in the world of fear and predation.  The real fire breathers are the ones we don’t see.

Mark Twain said “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.”  It would seem that Mr. Twain could easily have been speaking of the courage to confront our dragons.  In all things that require courage, there must be an associated cost.  Either real or perceived, but there must be a cost that scares the living shit out of most of humanity.  That cost might be death, dismemberment, severe physical harm or vulnerability when confronting truly frightening situations, grief and emotions so unsettling that we cannot understand or cope with them.  What brilliant courage it requires to face these dragons, brandish a sword or lance and move forward.  I have witnessed this recently and these acts have engendered deep and abiding respect.  

To those rare, steadfast and truly courageous folks who have faced their full-grown fire breathers recently, I am in awe.  Your movement forward with swords drawn is truly inspirational and has taught me a great deal.  My thoughts and prayers are with you.  Know also through the shining example you set, others might find inspiration and see a way forward..  May all of you emerge unscathed from the dragons lair into the sunshine and live free of the beasts.  

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

~Nelson Mandela