Confronting the Dragon

Less than a year ago I made a commitment, a vow, that I would be an activist for ecological and spiritual resurgence. At the time, for me, this felt glamorous in both the magical and the egoistic sense but inevitably things evolve and change.

When someone says it will be hard or you say to yourself it will be hard you don't really know what that means. For me the egoistic aspects of my vow have diminished but are still there while the magical aspects, like magic all over, come and go, being present sometimes in a half seen, corner of the eye, sort of way or in dreams or visions. What is hard though is fitting all of this into a life with loved ones and everyday things and in the face of reports of things like wars, rumours of wars, fascism, brutality and, yes, genocide.

So instead of an elegant essay I want to give you an image, not mine but one that the great storyteller JRR Tolkein created from parts of my ancestral and national history.

I see myself like a Hobbit, an ordinary enough chap with a fondness for rural life and second breakfasts, who finds himself confronting the dragon Smaug, hoarder of gold and treasure, dispenser of death and destruction. It makes no sense that something as small and insignificant as a Hobbit could confront something as huge, powerful and deadly as Smaug yet the Hobbit did what he could do as a Hobbit and that was enough to trigger events leading to Smaug's destruction.

I have a hope, sometimes fierce, sometimes weak, that in my small and insignificant way I can be part of the trigger that will bring the destruction of the dragon of capitalism and so allow wisdom, not wealth, to become our aspiration. I know that to do this I cannot look at how powerful the dragon is, how vast it is, how horribly it uses its deadly character or the wasteland it leaves behind. I must look forward at what can be, look at what I can do and, unlike the story image, know that there are lots of loving people doing exactly the same.

So thank you for indulging me with your attention, I think that it helps to share perspective and stories and I hope too that you might be a fellow Hobbit confronting the dragon and if you are, you have my love.