Over the weekend, I was privileged to lead a book club session with an ESL (English as a Second Language) group made up of college students. As the coordinator, I was saddled with the responsibility of selecting the book to be read and discussed in the meeting. Considering the group in question, I had to get a short, easy-to-read book that wouldn’t be so difficult to go through. I carried out a little research and eventually stumbled on a pick that seemed to check all the boxes. The book turned out to be such a good read, and I decided to discuss it in today’s blog post.
A Brief Synopsis
“Jonathan Livingstone Seagull” by Richard Bach is a classic novella first published in 1970. This piece of writing was well-received as it would go on to become a bestseller in 1972, sitting at the top of the New York Times Best Seller list for 37 weeks.
Spanning less than 10000 words, the book follows the life of a seagull named Jonathan Livingston. Like every other seagull, he grew up amid a Flock on a seashore. However, unlike every other seagull, he wasn’t satisfied with the conventional routine of scavenging for food. He believed there was more to life —and flight— than what he experienced with the Flock.
Consumed by his passion for flight, he continually strove to be better at it by constantly pushing himself beyond all possible limits. He would fly out alone to practice his flying skills from dawn to dusk, sometimes forgetting to eat while at it. This didn’t sit well with the Flock as they felt he wasn’t living by the rules, nor did he honour the traditions.
He would eventually be banished from the Flock, but this did not deter Jonathan from seeking what he believed was the purpose of life. Over time, he learned more than he could have ever imagined and mastered the art of flying. He became an extraordinary bird, attaining a supernatural level of flight. He later returned to the Flock to enlighten them of the possibilities available beyond their very limited idea of life. Little by little, he made a few disciples and taught them to fly beyond their imaginations.
The Message
Though a simple read (which was why I picked it in the first place), this novella is packed with many life lessons that we can adopt for ourselves. It teaches the value of purpose and the importance of living a meaningful life. Like Jonathan, we all possess an innate potential that is often obscured by the mundane pursuits we have grown to mindlessly engage in, as individuals and as a society.
Most people are simply satisfied with having food on their tables and shelter over their heads. These things are essential in themselves, but they only constitute the basic needs of man, as illustrated in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Like the rest of the seagull Flock, many folks are content with hovering over the base of Maslow’s pyramid, and only a few go as high as the peak, where “self-actualization” is located.
Jonathan Livingston is a clear example that we must overcome the limits we place on ourselves as individuals and those imposed on us by society to realize our greatest potential. The book also teaches lessons of love and kindness. Love strong enough to bypass rejection and kindness deep enough to help everyone we meet without expecting anything in return.
These are only a few of the numerous invaluable lessons embedded in this little story.
Excerpts from the Book
In addition to the lessons above, I came across some powerful lines in the book which I think are worth sharing…
“How much more there is now to living! Instead of our drab slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there’s a reason to life! We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free! We can learn to fly!”
“Your whole body, from wingtip to wingtip,” Jonathan would say, other times, “is nothing more than your thought itself, in a form you can see. Break the chains of your thought, and you break the chains of your body, too…”
“To fly as fast as thought, to anywhere that is,” he said, “you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived…”
“Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you’ll see the way to fly.”
“Why is it,” Jonathan puzzled, “that the hardest thing in the world is to convince a bird that he is free, and that he can prove it for himself if he’d just spend a little time practicing? Why should that be so hard?”
“I don’t understand how you manage to love a mob of birds that has just tried to kill you.” “Oh, Fletch, you don’t love that! You don’t love hatred and evil, of course. You have to practice and see the real gull, the good in every one of them, and to help them see it in themselves. That’s what I mean by love. It’s fun, when you get the knack of it.”
“How do you expect us to fly as you fly?” came another voice. “You are special and gifted and divine, above other birds.” “Look at Fletcher! Lowell! Charles-Roland! Judy Lee! Are they also special and gifted and divine? No more than you are, no more than I am. The only difference, the very only one, is that they have begun to understand what they really are and have begun to practice it.”
“The only true law is that which leads to freedom,” Jonathan said. “There is no other.”
From: Richard Bach. “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”.
I’ll leave you with this: Dare to Fly… For you’ll never know what you’re capable of until you try.
Ciao!