For me
Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by
Richard Bach has been a major influence. It tells the story of a Seagull (Jonathan Livingstone) who became an outcast when instead of using flight as a mere tool searching for food as the others in his flock do, starts experimenting with flight. It describes the spiritual path of being an outcast, starting the journey along a chosen path, finding a mentor-guru and a return to teach others.
It was morning, and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a gentle sea. A mile from shore a fishing boat chummed the water. and the word for Breakfast Flock flashed through the air, till a crowd of a thousand seagulls came to dodge and fight for bits of food. It was another busy day beginning.
But way off alone, out by himself beyond boat and shore, Jonathan Livingston Seagull was practicing. A hundred feet in the sky he lowered his webbed feet, lifted his beak, and strained to hold a painful hard twisting curve through his wings. The curve meant that he would fly slowly, and now he slowed until the wind was a whisper in his face, until the ocean stood still beneath him. He narrowed his eyes in fierce concentration, held his breath, forced one... single... more... inch... of... curve... Then his feathers ruffled, he stalled and fell.
I read the book first when I was 21. Since I could not afford the whopping Rs. 90/- the book was priced at I borrowed it from a bookshop and copied it down. (only 100 odd pages).
The book taught me that being different and rejection from those around you when they do not understand what you are is OK.
"Who is more responsible than a gull who finds and follows a meaning, a higher purpose for life? For a thousand years we have scrabbled after fish heads, but now we have a reason to live - to learn, to discover, to be free! Give me one chance, let me show you what I've found..."
The Flock might as well have been stone.
May be the year of its publishing being the same as the year of my birth was significant.
I recommend the book to everyone,
"You will begin to touch heaven, Jonathan, in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn't flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn't have limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being there."
May you find the Jonathan who lives within you..
