A man has turned into a dragon guarding a treasure. But what kind of treasure? It may be not monetary, but data. Whatever it is, people want it. Ambitious ones gather to try and slay its scaly guardian.

Bad idea. As a man, the guardian was a leading economist--that's why he was chosen to guard the trove--he understands its dangers if that wealth's dumped into the economy irresponsibly.

Besides, no need to fight him. He won't guard it forever. If the spell is broken (or ends naturally--dragonity, like presidentiality, has term limits) he'll turn human again. And disperse it cautiously.

Now with most economists, I wouldn't care a bit if you gutted him. I find most of them cold, cynical, selfish, cultish capitalists, promoting more of the same. But this guy wasn't just human but humane. Before his dragon gig, he edited a popular finance magazine like Forbes, and before THAT, the New Yorker--championed all sorts of social causes. A sparkling conversationalist too, by repute at least. Even in his current scaly form, he may still have witty dragon repartee, but who can understand him?

Anyway, I worry some wannabe Beowulf will kill him without even knowing his history or humanity--and misuse the data-treasure.

Worse than economists do, I mean.

• Treasure, economists, data not cash: last year, our mom died, leaving a complicated estate; I was named executor, but found vital data missing & the taxes unclear. Till I resolve that, my sisters and I can't split it and invest our shares. Feel guilty for solving it so slowly. Am I delaying out of reluctance, like some dragon-spell that makes me hoard treasure instead of investing it? Not out of dragon-greed so much as dragon caution--the fear of making a mistake!
• Dragon: Today I saw Tolkien's illustrations of dragons for Beowulf and The Hobbit (see above)
• This dragon's human, needs spellbreaking not slaying: from the film Voyage of the Dawntreader. Eustace, human, sleeps on a dragon-hoard and wakes up scaly. Nearly gets slaughtered by his friends!
• Loathing toward economists: Literal. My sisters and I were raised as hippies: mistrusting not just the rich but money itself. "Wealth corrupts." So my delays may not be fear of mistakes losing us money, but fear of money itself. Have I delayed and sabotaged cuz it's nobler to stay poor?
• ACTION: Quit being squeamish. Be the dragon economist you have to be--for a limited term. Knuckle down and finish, right or wrong, rich or poor... so we can get on with our lives!

I worked up my courage and asked the IRS directly how they wanted me to handle the estate and its missing data. Did it their way, split the results, sent my sisters their share, and invested mine in a social/ethical fund. It looks like enough for each of us to live on, sparingly. Financial security after years of uncertainty!

If that's wicked, guess I am a dragon. Economist. Whatever.

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