While touring the Prado museum in Madrid some time ago, I stumbled upon a magnificent rendering of St. George slaying the Dragon by Rubens. According to myth, he did it in order to save the town’s princess from being eaten by the dragon, and symbolically his victory was the victory of good over evil. After the triumph he got the kingdom and the princess.

While I sat there mesmerized by Ruben’s artistic excellence, I pondered on the why behind heroic acts in general: why would St. George, or indeed any man, go fight a dragon? After all, the dangers of being burned and hurt, defeated and even killed are quite real. What drives him, truly?

There are men who fight dragons to get the girl, a better car or prove their power. And then there are men who fight dragons because they feel called to, feel that it is their responsibility to do so. Those might still get the girl and the car, but that is not what drives them. Rather, it is a sense of purpose that inspires such men, to conquer evil and restore wholeness to life.

All purposes can make heroes – after all, if St. George had slain the dragon to get money to buy a better horse, it wouldn’t have made him a lesser hero. But it would have made him a lesser man, his purpose less noble, limited in wisdom and stained by self interest. Nobility of purpose is a clear indication of a man’s self-worth, for the conditioning of one’s engagement to payback is also the means by which a man’s integrity is lost and his will subject to manipulation by others, for the right price.

St. George fought the dragon for no other reason than ridding the world of it, his self-worth resting on an iron-clad integrity and an honour immune to temptations. Had his worthiness been in need of proving and his nobility at the level of power or wealth accumulation, he would have gauged his dragon-fighting engagement according to the prize offered. By doing so, he would have depreciated himself to the level of service provider or bounty hunter, and depreciated his bounty – the princess and the kingdom – from the level of Spirit, worthy of love and protection in their own right, to the level of matter, to be used to fulfill his self-worth needs and power goals.

Yet the consumption of matter can never fill, only temporarily soothe, low self-worth in a man. Like all matter, the kingdom and princess too would fall under the curse of diminishing returns, eventually reawakening the hero’s need for proving himself. Thus would begin a renewed crave for power, pleasure or matter, and depending on the king in question it would take the direction of either political, military or romantic conquests.

History is drenched with the blood of victims of such kings, chieftains, captains, presidents, directors and politicians who, lacking nobility, make it their purpose to consume others and the world, never quite managing to fully assuage their gaping wounds of worthlessness. For no power nor matter ever can: only Spirit, or the purpose of living potential at highest levels of nobility, truly heals a man’s self-worth.