Touching the Dragon: And Other Techniques for Surviving Life's Wars

by james hatch

The reason I wanted to be the successful wounded vet is the same reason we often desperately want to be something new or different—because we don’t know what we are.

And shortly thereafter, in a rare moment of lucidity, I hatched the nickname for this painful process: Touching the dragon. Touching the dragon involved touching the thing that tormented me over and over until I realized it wasn’t going to burn me.

responded poorly. “If you think I need staples to kill everyone in this room,” I said, “then you’re the one who’s crazy.” Here’s some advice: Don’t threaten the staff at a mental ward. It’s not a good call. You might end up staying in that ward a little longer—say, for example, an extra week. You may even start getting a different kind of shot in your arm. I should have done the drawings.

was amazing to me that all of my twenty-five years and eleven months were summed up in less than two pages of paper. That is telling. It let me know how easy it was to replace me. Like taking your finger out of a glass of water. The spot it vacates fills right back up.

Another good trick is telling people I got shot. That’s typically when they stop checking their phones.