“Dancing in the Light” by Thurman Strother

Posted on March 31, 2026, tagged as

Many people who have a rather dramatic life story often hear, “You should write a book.” Such was the case with Derald Cochran who after many years of hearing this, did so. I reviewed his book, “A Tomb to the Light” in my November 2025 newsletter. Now I write about Thurman Strother, another man with decades of addiction recovery and in his case decades of working in the recovery field. He presents his book as the first in his “Retired Dragon Fighter” series. Beginning with his childhood, a frightening and soul-damaging time during which he developed many negative thoughts about himself and about life. He goes on to tell about his early adult life which was characterized by excessive alcohol and drug use as well as fractured relationships. In his own broken state, how could he have healthy relationships with anyone, especially wives and children? He tells of the journey of finding sanity through the care of a talented therapist and eventually, establishing abstinence in a twelve-step program. Significantly, even prior to beginning his journey of recovery he found work in the mental health and addiction treatment field that taught him that such recovery is possible.

The author talks at length about his “dragons.” In his case, dragons are self-destructive behaviors and negative thoughts about himself and about life. Through his journey of recovery, he learned much about how he was hurting himself and others by fighting this self-hate. He talks about how fighting negativity had the effect of keeping him bound to his old ideas. It was only by embracing new ideas of compassion, love, kindness, and letting go of the past through forgiveness, and the making of living amends as a sober man that he became free to enjoy his life. It is a heroic tale with a twist on the understanding of dragons and dragon-slaying, conveying the idea of a dragon as the enemy within. A striking element in this story is the transparency and honesty of the author. He rejects the concept of blame, either of others or himself. The message of hope is clear. Whether there will be a second or more stories forthcoming in this “Retired Dragon Fighter Series” remains to be seen. He understands the importance of sharing his gifts with others on the heroic journey of life. The author has a lifetime of experience, and he has much to share which he continues to do in his daily life. I hope he has the energy and motivation to write another book.