Me and My Dragons

There are currently no less than ten dragons visible from my bed. One, I made out of legos (I've made extensive modifications to the original design. I think I've blogged about that. I've made another few changes since then). One was once a keychain, but I made it into a necklace. Two serve as bookends that hold a book series that I've been reading. Three are stuffed toys originally meant to be played with by dogs. And the last three are figurines, covering their eyes, ears, or mouth. In addition to that, two of my favorite T-shirts have dragons on them, my favorite Magic: the Gathering deck has ten or twelve dragons in it (depending on whether you count the Taurean Maulers as dragons) and most of my other trading card decks have at least one dragon each. Needless to say, I love dragons.

However, as awesome as I think dragons are, I have to admit that most dragons do not make good role-models. Dragons tend to be proud, greedy, violent, and sometimes vain and/or gluttonous, accounting for at least four of the seven deadly sins. Some might say dragons are slothful, too, so that would make it five out of seven. Not to mention, there's a certain scriptural "dragon" who is practically the antithesis of a role-model.

So, what does that mean for me and my dragons? The good news is that I know that dragons aren't good role-models, so I don't try to emulate them, like I do with Paladins. But, given that I know that dragons don't set good examples, is it wise for me to have so many around me? We're counseled to choose our friends carefully. Does that extend to our plush, plastic, and paper friends?

I'll have to think about this, and especially about what effects my dragons have on me. Do they, can they, help me be a better person?

One thing that dragons have always represented to me is power. Their wings give them the power to go where they choose. Their scales give them the power to withstand attacks. And their claws and fiery breath give them the power to destroy their enemies. Power, in itself, isn't a bad thing. It's really all in how a person uses their power. As such, having power and even wanting power aren't always bad things. The freedom and resilience of dragons are two aspects of dragons that are especially desirable and useful in the fight against the biblical dragon.

As for the destructive power of dragons (by far a dragon's most prominent aspect), it probably fits into the same category as the only non-armor component of the armor of God. Every Paladin, every soldier of God, needs to have some kind of weapon they can use against the adversary. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul represented that offensive power with "the sword of the Spirit," but in other places, the Spirit is presented not as being sword-like, hard, sharp, and solid, but as being like a fire, warm and bright, intangible in that it doesn't have a physical form, yet tangible in that it can be felt. Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost is sometimes called the baptism of fire, and receiving inspiration from the Spirit is sometimes called a burning in the bosom. I think that, in many ways, fire is more like the Spirit than swords are.

Allowing fire to symbolize the Spirit creates a potent visual when considering where a dragon's fire comes from. Some say that dragons have a sort of furnace within them, which is constantly burning with an incredible heat. If fire represents the Spirit, that tells me that such dragons have powerful, constant testimonies. But even in worlds where dragons' fires aren't lit by inner furnaces, dragonfire always comes out of dragons' mouths. Many of the things we can do to invite the Spirit, and especially to invite the Spirit to touch the hearts of others, are done with our mouths, such as by praying, reading scriptures aloud, singing hymns, teaching gospel truths, and bearing testimony of them. If fire represents the Spirit, then dragons have the Spirit with them more than most other mythological creatures.

So, dragons do have some spiritually-positive aspects to them. As long as I focus on those aspects, rather than on the negative ones, dragons can have a good influence on me, or at least not a bad one, and can help me win my spiritual war against the dragon spoken of in the scriptures. At the very least, I have just succeeded in justifying my love of dragons to myself, despite knowing that dragons don't always exhibit Christlike behavior. Besides, I'm sure that not all dragons are evil, greedy, lovers of destruction. I bet there are plenty of good dragons out there, including each of the ten I can see from my bed.