Journeys, and most especially Homer's Odyssey, have long been viewed as symbolic of our personal journeys towards our highest goals, often spiritual transformation.

Returning home! How deep and sweet the thought is, whether it's from the war, the jail, the business world, or epic battles against our own inner demons.

This month, Norman Fischer came out with a tempting book to help us chart the route called Sailing Home - Using the Wisdom of Homer's Odyssey to Navigate Life's Perils and Pitfalls.

After reading this description from the publisher, I wonder how anyone can resist the book:

Norman Fischer deftly incorporates Buddhist, Judaic, Christian, and popular thought, as well as his own unique and sympathetic understanding of life, in his reinterpretation of Odysseus's familiar wanderings as lessons that everyone can use. We see how to resist the seduction of the Sirens' song to stop sailing and give up; how to bide our time in a situation and wait for the right opportunity -- as Odysseus does when faced with the murderous, one-eyed Cyclops; and how to reassess our story and rediscover our purpose and identity if, like the Lotus-Eaters, we have forgotten the past.

Inasmuch as my novel in progress, Garden of Heaven, is based on this idea, it's exciting to see others using the theme. If only Fischer had come out with this book a year ago when I was deep in the labyrinth of my plot.

We're all deep in the labyrinth of life regardless of what we're here on Earth to accomplish. The words Odyssey and Homer, of course, conjure up great things, larger-than-life events and larger-than-life endings. Don't let that chase you away from this book. As everyday people, our mission for now might be to clear the maxed out credit cards and get the family into a new house or to finish up that long-held-up college degree.

Fischer writes, "Maybe the point of our life's journey, our spiritual odyssey is not conquest or perfection, whether spiritual or worldly, but rather the simple transformation into what we have been all along: flesh-and-blood people in a flesh-and-blood world, feeling what people feel and doing what people do. Returning home to what we are. Could this be enough?

Your choice, to be sure.

Sailing Home looks like a nice roadmap for wherever you're going.

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Copyright (c) 2008 by Malcolm R. Campbell.

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