How surprised I was to encounter this novella, floating, just shy of 80 pages. I just had to read it all in one sitting.
We encounter a narrator at peace (despite difficulties to be revealed in the epilogue), and we find him asking life’s big questions one night in late June (a sad time if you say it out loud slowly, slowly: “Late June”), specifically outside his home one chilly winter night, gazing up at the stars, as he encounters a real life living Centaur, the one and only named Chiron.
And here begins the heart of the narrative: a dialog, pure dialog, in the manner of some of the most recognized Greek texts, of which this story sources, between a “wounded child” and the incarnation of his spirit guide. (The pace and theme of this work is wound like a clock before-hand, meaning that as one reads the preface/prologue about an eight year old boy and his Lutheran pastor, the reader whispers: “Ooh,” and ticks from page to page with celestial ease, learning, questioning, divining, enjoying. In Wonder.
To say a few words: the journey as a whole goes from “wounded child,” the one who could be inside each of us, to “Wounded Healer,” in upper-case, for it is a proper noun with a proper purpose. Inseparably this is the story of the author himself, JohnEgreek, as he comes to learn his purpose is to inspire others through his authorship, as a story teller, and healer– this is his third book, so the journey into letters has been established, in that this book detail a real purpose, it seems, not just “hogwash,” as one says.
In a few more words: the architecture of this work mixes Greek mythology with Christian faith, the astrological with the eternally divine: the author creates a conversation so unique, you can’t help but shiver with goosebumps at the roaring epiphanies that punctuate the end of each utterance by Chiron. Read the book to know what we’re talking about.
In the end: what I walk away with, after listening to a spiritual man speak with his spiritual guide (who in Greek is Odigo, via the centaur Chiron), is a smile on my face. By God. What a read.
This writer wishes The Writer a blessed journey, and the curious reader the pleasure of reading his words.