That Perfect Phoenix

My son asked me a question the other night before bed, which is my favorite bonding time with him each day, when we lounge on his bed and just have some time set aside to talk about whatever is on his mind.  His pivotal question of the evening was this:

"Which is cooler -- a dragon or a Phoenix?"

I was using his covered up legs as a pillow (a wiggly and giggly pillow at that), and I thought for a moment.  Hm.  My wheels started turning.  My Chinese zodiac is the dragon, so I immediately felt a little partial to answering dragon.  And I know his adorable girlfriend (oops, friend-girl) loves dragons, so I was clearly tempted to say dragon for that reason, too.  Plus I could tell and just knew that's what he wanted me to say.  And I always love to see him smile....

But... then I said, almost instinctively: "Phoenix."  Just blurted it out with certainty.  And then realized why after I'd answered.

He thought I answered wrong.

I sat quietly as he tried to convince me otherwise because of all the cool things dragons can do and how big and majestic they are... and they can both fly, but dragons are bigger....  You get the idea.  All the things an almost ten year old boy would rattle off about how cool dragons are.  And he then even told me about all the friends he has who picked dragon instead of Phoenix when he and his friends had been surveying each other about this at school earlier in the day. 

And I said "Nope."  I utterly don't care if I'm the only one who says Phoenix.  I've never cared if no one agrees with me... so numbers in opposition aren't going to sway me.  See, none of what a dragon can do matters compared to the extraordinary thing the Phoenix can do.  "A Phoenix can come back to life," I said.  "It can rise from the ashes."  And then I finished with this... "What's better than immortality?"  I asked him.

He didn't have a a good answer.  Dragons are fanciful and dominating creatures of lore.  They are fierce.  They are powerful.  But a Phoenix rises from its own ashes and becomes whole and perfect again.  Transforms.  Metamorphoses.  Into what it was always supposed to be.  After having been consumed by its own fire.  Turning to dust and ash and then rising and becoming majestic once again.

I'll pick that every... single... time.  That's pretty fucking magical and resonates with just about the most beautiful thing I can think of.  Consumption.  And then rising.  Becoming.  Renewal.  Being reborn from fiery dust to remake itself into a beautiful whole again.

I found a website just now discussing the Phoenix and its historical role in various cultures, and I just read this:

"In Chinese culture, a phoenix-like bird is known as 'fenghuang,' and is the sacred leader of all birds. Feng is male and huang is female, and thus the Chinese phoenix serves as a representation of balanced, integrated masculine and feminine energies.  It is considered to be symbolic of nobility, divinity, peace, prosperity, immortality, and the constant striving of the human spirit to transform and ascend."

That.  All of that.  I can swim in that forever.  I'm glad I chose the Phoenix.