About my fascination with dragons: I remember being in grade school and bringing home a book from the library. Lord of the Rings. The picture on the cover was the first "high fantasy" I had ever seen. It grabbed me. Wizards, Elves, Goblins, castles and of course Dragons. This and many other elements all sunk their hooks into me. Of course my mother would not let me read it and even called the school to question why they had let a 2nd grader check out such a book! It was too late. The damage was done. I was hooked even though I had not even read it. Just the thought that there were imaginary worlds where these thing existed was enough to capture me in a world of magical creativity.
15 Years later I was given a dragon statue made by a company called Windstone and sculpted by an artist named M. Pena. Here was a 3 dimensional dragon, about the size I imagine that the dragonettes described in the Anne McCaffery's Dragon Riders of Pern series of books. It would sit on my book shelf and look at me as I drew or played guitar. Almost as if it were alive. After Sue and I married I set up a nice display with my dragons and a sword on our bedroom dresser. I thought it was a very nice display. But, I was instructed to take it from the bedroom shelf "Because it creeps me out. The eyes follow you wherever you go". Of course they did. Dragons like to see what is going on around them. I tried to laugh this off but eventually lost out.
To this day I still love dragons. I even got my 5 year old granddaughter, Jessica, a plush dragon for Christmas last year. Upon opening it she squealed with delight, ran and gave me a big hug, then made everyone in the room repeat after her "Grandpa Bill is the best!". Everyone did repeat as they rolled their eyes and threw daggers at me. I could clearly see Jessica's wisdom. But, it was the cynical and jealous attitude of never having received a dragon for Christmas that tainted them in this manner. But Jessica and I know better. One is never too young to receive their first dragon.
