Once upon a time many many years ago–back around 621 B.C.–in a
land called Greece in a city called Athens there lived an evil evil
man called Draco–a member of Greek nobility and therefore ignorant
of the plight of the common man. It has been said this propensity
continues to this very day… hard as it may be to believe. Draco
was a giver of laws and the laws he gave out were so severe and harsh
that there were those who thought they were written in blood.
If you owed money… the punishment was enslavement. However if you
stole or lied or did some on-the-sly coveting… for all other
infractions in fact… trivial or not… the punishment was death. He
lamented–it is said–that he had no greater punishment for the more
important crimes.
This attitude of cruelty… named after its founder Draco … became
known as Draconian… a word we now hear quite often when referring
to today’s corporate obliviousness to the plight of this country and
its people as they (the corporations) continue to blithely soak us
dry with draconian callousness.
Interestingly enough… in what may well be the greatest segue of all
time… it is from Draco and his monstrous edicts that is derived the
word to describe that most fearsome of all creatures: The Dragon. I
would venture to say that a draconian dragon is redundant. This last
little bit is for thems amongst you wot loves etymology.
As to the dragon… well… of course… they ain’t all bad. How many
of you remember Puff? And then there’s the Tang dynasty–when bronze
was in full vogue and dragons did handstands. Yes they did. It was
back back in ancient China around 618 - 907 B.C. Back then the dragon
was a symbol of the emperor and was very important to followers of
Daoism.
As to dragons doing handstands… they were quite adept at it.
Perhaps in a moment of hedonistic amity a dragon may well have once
posed for the royal sculptor of the day. Oh Irving, he may have said.
Sculpt me while I stand on my hands and you will have an image that
will live through the centuries. Irving–the royal sculptor for the
emperor–could not resist. And he passed an image of the sculpture on
to his children and they passed it on to their children till it
finally landed in the hands of one of the royal descendants of the
Tang dynasty…a man of the royal courts by the name of Tyler who
ultimately passed it on to me.
You–dear souls–are the fortunate recipients of my heritage dating
back to my blue-blooded relatives during that time that preceded the
modern age. So. You wanna see a bronze dragon doing a handstand? I
promise you it’s a stunner.
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com where you will
scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says
Current Tidbits… and you will get to view a bronze dragon in all
his glory standing on his front claws.
And there ya have it.
That’s it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark