Jonathan Livingston Seagull

I first heard of this name roughly three years back from my close Guidance Counselor, Mr. andrew Floresta, in college.  We had rare occasions of conversing soberly alone, and from those rare exchage of thoughts we learned a little more about life from each other.

One of the valuable insights Andrew shared to me was about the gull named Jonathan.  I can vividly recall how he narrated the most important scenes and encounters of the gull's struggle on learning how to soar the sky higher using varius techniques other than the usual way gulls fly.  That was the first and the last time I heard Jonathan's story.  And I learned nothing more but the bit albeit the most insightful part of the story.
It took me three years to have myself convinced to get a copy of the book and it turned to be more than worth shedding-off some bucks out of my wallet.  It's an extraordinary story  written by an extra-scintillating writer.

In the story, gulls are known to flap their wings only for the purpose of satisfying their hunger and nothing else.  Yet, among these thousands of gulls, one out of the flock is special -- Jonathan Livingston Seagull.   He thinks that gulls do not exist solely to feed themselves.  There is a purpose why the heavenly creator gave them wings - to fly.  And that is not to merely fly for food or survival, but to fly with grace and beauty because this is real purpose of their living.  The purpose of giving beauty to the sky in this immensely beautiful abode.  Jonathan thought: 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 intellligence and skill.  We can be free!  We can  learn to fly!

One day in his practice, he decided to display all the new skills and ways of flying that he has learned himself to the flock.  But alas!  The Elder Gull has spoken and he is to be then considered an outcast - he is a disgrace - since he did not abide by the Law of the Flock.  And that's the payment for his irresponsibility.  And these are the last few words he spoke of before he finally left the flock,"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 head, but now we have a reason to live - to learn, to discover, to be free!"  Jonathan then finally flew away.

With great joy, he found a new home in the new flock of gulls who also became outcasts of their own flocks because like him they believed that flying is the most amazing thing a gull can ever do.  Here, they spend all their time practicing and learning together all the possible ways of flying - from level flight, to loops, to inversions, to speed flight.  They teach new members that they have the ability to achieve the best flight skills in all the world and that they have to believe that they already have the skills.  So, they practice and practice and achieve the unlimited flying skills so long as they live.

We all know that gulls can fly, but Richard Back is actually reaching our hearts out through this fable, whispering to us that there is nothing too difficult for us in this world.  God gave us everything when He bestowed us His blessings.  All we need is practice.  And this leads to Jonathan's query,"Why is it that the hardest thing in the world is to convince a bird that he is free and he can prove it to himself if he'd just spend a little time practicing?  Why should that be so hard?"

We all have the skills, talents and capabilities.  We're stuffed of them.  We are the most special creation of God among all creatures, and every bit of His image and likeness, as was written in the Book of Genesis, has been endowed upon us.  So to  quote fro the book one last time,"To fly as fast as thought, to anywhere that is, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived."
Start learning how to fly higher!