The Dragon's Head

 

One of my favorite books from years ago was The Hero and the Crown, by Robin McKinley. The plot of the book involves a quest by a young female misfit, who had to save her father’s kingdom by retrieving the lost crown.  By the time she returned from her adventures with the crown, her father’s army was losing the battle with the evil enemy.  She delivers the crown to her childhood friend and her father’s chosen heir in the nick of time, but not soon enough to save her father from his mortal wounds.

The scene that follows involves discovering why the kingdom’s fortunes had gone so wrong in her absence.  Why the mysterious miasma that permeated the kingdom and caused the hopelessness?  They trace the tendrils of darkness to a storage room in the castle, where the head of Maur, the defeated evil dragon, had been stored.  Even in defeat, the evil dragon had continued to infect the kingdom and its people with an aura of dark hopelessness. 

This was, of course, a fantasy book.  There are no dragons, at least in our world.  Not flesh and blood dragons.  But I think we all sense a fog of darkness over our world today.  Our modern dragons are more subtle and speak to us with deceptive voices.  “See that guy over there,” they say.  “He’s different.  He’s trying to take your stuff.”  Or, “She doesn’t believe like you do.”  As if practicing her belief somehow diminishes your belief.  “Those people,” they say, “are poor.  It’s their own fault.  They are coming to take what’s yours.  They don’t deserve what you have.”  Their voices are loud.  “Your rights are more important than their rights – it’s all someone’s else’s fault.”  And maybe even more insidious, “The end justifies the means.”

In the story, the hero and heroine roll Maur’s head out of the castle and down the road away from the castle gate, where it explodes into a fireball and changes the landscape into a vast desert.  Getting rid of our dragon head is not so easy.

Who will track down the source of the fog of fear and anger and hopelessness that infects so many of us today?  And how will they remove it?  A few brave souls try to shine their light brightly enough to overcome the darkness.  Musicians still write and sing songs, artists still paint, writers still write stories of hope and healing.  And some people just forge doggedly ahead, feeding the hungry, visiting the lonely, growing a garden, volunteering in the community, teaching the children - despite the forces that seem determined to undermine every source of light.

We don’t have a magical crown or a supernatural hero to rescue us.  All we can do is strike our small sparks of light and take a step or two forward into the darkness.  The flame may sputter, but we can cup a hand around it to protect it from the winds of hate and fear and greed. We have to remember that light will always be stronger than darkness.  We have to believe that love will always win.