From Zen cherry blossoms to the Noh stage. From Hawaiian breathing lessons to an Okinawan rodeo. From Balinese wise men to the Egyptian pyramids. It all started in small town Minnesota and it ended much later than the doctors said it would. In his early 20s, Wayne Stier was diagnosed with cancer and a less than 50% chance of living more than 5 years. He and his wife Mars responded by seizing the day and moving to Japan.
This extraordinary memoir is full of memorable lines and lessons. Some funny. aRule of slapstick--stand up quick and pretend it didnat happen.a Some koan-like: aA dogas bark is a dot pointing out the silence.a Stieras writing will change the way you look at the world. His writing is an act of discovery and rediscovery, from the landlocked plains of the midwest to the slope of an active volcano. In Japan, Wayne became a Kyogen actor and the second foreigner ever to perform on the Noh stage. On the Big Island of Hawaii he built his home and art studio, with living trees forming the corner posts, and wrote the myth of his own life.
In Bali, an old man told Wayne to look at the sky--filled with shining stars even when the sun is shining. Stars when the Sun Shines is about looking at the world through continuously new eyes. Itas bound to change the way the reader looks at the world as well. Stieras writing burns through illusions to conclusions about a life so full he forgot he was dying, until he did, in Hawaii, on May 30, 2009, weeks after his 62nd birthday.
A note from the publisher: I met Wayne Stier when I was 5 and he was 6. We grew up in the same town, both of us suspecting there must be more in the world. The first time I published his work was in our high school newspaper. The last time I saw him until a few weeks before he died he was telling me that the pop (soda) in my hand might exist in another plane in a different way or might not exist at all. The very last time I saw him we talked all night and planned at least three more books. I am beyond grateful to have met him. Saint, holy man, foolaall of those and more.