Slaying The Dragon Within Us

Slaying The Dragon Within Us

This is the first Big Ideas Lecture 

I completed, back in 2002. 

I read a book for 

very young children 

by Jack Kent called 

"There's No Such 

Thing as a Dragon" 

to a group of 

University of Toronto alumni 

(most over 65). 

I explained what it meant : 

Pay Attention -- or else. 

Passion...It lies in all of us...

Sleeping... Waiting.

And though unwanted, unbidden...

It will stir, open its jaws...

And Howl.

It Speaks to us... Guides us.

Passion rules us all,

and We obey.

What other Choice

Do We Have?

It Hurts sometimes more 

than we can bear —

If We could Live without Passion,

maybe we'd know some 

kind of peace….

But We Would 

Be Hollow.

Empty rooms...

Shuttered and Dank.

Without Passion,

We'd be Truly Dead.