Dragons, high, so please excuse Options

[Prashantt Nair]

the images that the word conjures up is amazing. in different cultures around the world dragons have always played a very significant role. from the europeans to the asians even the south and central americans, dragons have fascinated and dominated a lot of their folklore. i am not a sociological scientist so i will not claim that i know a lot about dragon folklore or their possible existence in the real world, but i must say that i have always found myself intreagued by creatures that are conventionally looked down apon. most reptiles, insects and many other creatures, for no fault of their own are found un-appealing to humans. most of the time its for good reason. genetically we are hardwired to be afraid/weary of creatures that can harm us like snakes/ spiders /bees etc. this is a very valid weariness that we have for these creatures. in our scriptures and folklore, these creatures have been used metophorically to pass on some moral message or the other. many times they have been shown in extremely poor light just to strengthen the moral message. its mostly due to this that most creatures that we 'culturally' don't like are the ones that play 'bad' parts in the play of scriptures.
anyway back to dragons, most cultures that i know of have stories involving dragons. they were descibed as fire breathing beasts that could fly. they were solitary and were definetely reptilian. the fire-breathing may or may not have been a fallacy. the rest of the features can be seen in living reptiles today. the dragonlike head on most monitor/iguana/gecko lizards are so reminescent of the pictorial depictions that we have all seen of dragons. the flying lizards of south and east asia are a living example of how uncomplicatedly lizards can glide using very competent aerodynamics. the 'jesus lizard' or the bascillisc lizard of south america can actually run on water. i'm not kidding, really run on water, on two hind limbs, its crazy, you have to look that up. the komodo dragon of indonesia is probobly closest in demeanor and behavior as any dragon that we might have grown up on.
the mystery of the dark caves in secluded mountains that the dragon lived in or the deep cavernous deapths of the ocean out of which it came out of, thinking about the the mythical dragon has always held me spellbound.

[pinacoolada]

A blue dragon was my middle school mascot... =]