Dragons, Detours, and Damsels in Denial

     In  Medieval history and even in Antiquity, there were creatures roaming the Earth, creatures, gods, beings, all of which we couldn't imagine the the world today.  In their time, each one of these abnormalities of creation seemed to be so tangible, but in reality...some were the most erroneous mental conceptions ever imagined.  Looking back, we now understand each of these "beings" were actually real. Alive.  Tangible. No they didn't live in a cave and come out only to see a town consumed in the conflagration it spouted from their nasal cavities, or even turn people to stone at a single glance; towering populations physically may be an exaggeration, but the turbulence of these beings was all too real for each culture which constructed their existence.  Symbols.  These beings were symbols to the problems which ravaged their individual empires and at times, wreaked havoc upon the lot of the globe.

     Dragons were birthed by the "religious" sect known as Pagans.  There are many stories in history and even the Literary Cannon, which house some sort of Pagan belief either reigning, holding the most paramount of positions in the culture or being decimated by a new belief or idea.  Beowulf is a prime example.

     The story of Beowulf was written in the time that Christianity began to to develop and become the dominant faith over all other beliefs, especially Paganism.  The narrator of the epic tale has clearly has devout belief and loyalty to the Christian faith, but the actual characters are a variant from the narrator.  The evil in the story, Grendel and his mother, have a direct connection to the Christian faith, and when they attack, the Geats would pray to their Pagan gods, but nothing would happen.  These monsters of their culture lived in the most elusive of places, where no man dared to travel, only strengthening the the foreign nature of this faith. Through the development of the poem, the hero kills the evil, but still has some sort of a Pagan crutch that he falls on throughout the poem, even when it seems he has shifted beliefs.  The final battle, our hero had help killing on of the most Pagan of all creatures, a dragon.  Beowulf strikes the dragon, but the deathblow is delivered by Wiglaf, another person seeming devout in their Christlike affiliation.  So the story ends with a strong Pagan symbol being destroyed, but a Christian taking over.  Symbolic development.

     I would like to take the symbol of the dragon and breathe some life back in into its caustic nostrils.  In today's time, we still cling to this idea of a dragon.  Through movies, books, cartoons -TROGDOR!!!-, apparel, these mystical creatures of masticated folklore continue to live even after the triumph of their Jesus driven counterpart.  The symbol has been lost, so now...dragons are cool!  How about we breach the surface of their "coolness." To us Christian, dragons should be vile things which none of us adore, but that idea had been lost.  Instead we get caught up in the elegance of the dragon, in movies we try to befriend them or obtain knowledge and/or glory.  Dragons still live today, but are more tangible than ever.

     People of deception are much like dragons.  They can seem so elegant, so astute, and can even command a great deal of renown, but not so deep down inside, their napalm-covered cavity gives residence to every quality which is covered by their seemingly perfect facade.  This fallacious facade creates a most formidable detour for those whose eyes can only see what is on the exterior...because, exteriors are cool, right?  Detours with butterflies and flowers seem to be rather common...and the length of these detours represent a vast amount of denial.  Deception and denial are almost synonymous!

Enough of allusions to my first post.  Beware of dragons, all except one.

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