Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach

Ek het hierdie boek in Junie 2007 geblog en dit bly een van my heel grootste gunsteling-boeke. EK het die boek in SA gekoop, lank gelede, vroeë negentigs. Daardie spesifieke boek het die pragtigste foto's wat op baie dun aftrekpapier geprint is. As jy dus na die seemeeu kyk en omblaai, het hy weer na die teenoorgestelde rigting gevlieg. Sowat twee jaar gelede stap ek by WH Smith in en kyk so bietjie deur die boeke en sowaar, daar's die klein boekie...soos die een in die foto hier. Hierdie een het glad nie daardie foto-bladsye in nie, maar die boekie bly spesiaal. Ek het dit sommer dadelik weer gekoop, aangesien my ander een weggepak is. En, ek het hom weer gelees! Ek het die boekie vir iemand geleen en sy het hom toe nog nie begin lees toe ek klaar by die betrokke skool afgelos het nie, dat ek maar gesê het sy kan hom hou en ek gaan hom weer vir my kry. Dis die moeite werd om hierdie boek op jou rak te hê. Vandag het 'n link deurgekom na my blog en ek het dit teruggevolg en by die inskrywing uitgekom wat die blogger gemaak het. Die volgende gedeelte is op sy blog gevind en ek haal dit graag hier aan. (van: notetomyself.wordpress.)Die blogger het ook 'n ander inskrywing gehad met aanhalings van die boek wat ek ook hier plaas. Ek kan nie genoeg beklemtoon hoe ek hierdie boek geniet het en my geinspireer nie.

Ek het heelwat van Richard Bach se ander boeke ook gelees, hulle vir my gekoop. Ek het dit geniet, maar dis heeltemal in 'n ander trant geskryf as hierdie boek. Die ander is meer romantiese verhale. Geniet hierdie youtube-video ook terselftertyd!
(Maankind, as jy hier lees, ek het 'n gedeelte ge"highligt" wat ek wou "copy" en "paste" maar as ek regskliek, dan verskyn "cut" of "copy" nie. Ek weet nie of ek dit op 'n ander manier moet doen nie, ek sien nie op die "toolbar" hierbo 'n link om dit te doen nie.)

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The story is about Jonathan Livingston Seagull , an ordinary
seagull who is more interested to know about flying then just
eating fish. Soon his parents grow worried that why he can’t be
like other in the Flock, leaving low flying to albatross. Jonathan
tries to be like other gulls but soon he is back experimenting
different kinds of flying. But after many efforts he fails in flying
efficiently and eventually decides to quit and join the Flock, that
would make everyone happier , thinks Jonathan. While
returning to the Flock, he discovers how to fly like falcon and is
able to set the highest speed limit in the history of seagulls. He
decides to share the discovery with the Flock, and they will be
wild with joys, he thinks. Immediately, Jonathan is summoned
by the Council and Jonathan declared outcast for irresponsible
behaviour.
Jonathan lives alone beyond Far Cliff and learns more
everyday. One day he is joined by two seagulls, bright and
white as starlight, who have come to take him higher, to take
him to home.
So this is heaven, thinks Jonathan , when he arrives with them
and finds his feather glowed brightly and wings were smooth.
He finds that there still many things to learn and he learns
quickly with the help of Chiang, the Elder seagull. In time he
starts teaching new seagulls coming in, but he gives thought
about his Flock on the earth where some gulls who would also
be able to learn and decides to return to the Flock.
When he returns he finds young Fletcher Lynd Seagull, an
outcast for he too wants to learn fly higher. Jonathan gathers
more student one by one who were ready to face the fury of the
Flock but eager to learn fly higher. Soon the Flock calls
Jonathan as the Son of the Great Gull for his unbelievable
abilities to fly. Then Jonathan tells Fletcher that he is now
leaving as there may be other flocks and other Fletchers
waiting for instructions and lastly Jonathan asks Fletcher, that
no rumors about him is spread or make him a god.
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Ek stem 100% saam wat die blogger hier sê:
Once you start reading you understand that the story can be ,
or is, related to human beings. We mostly live for the sake of
living and do not seek the purpose of life and do not travels
beyond ordinary and remains ordinary.
I am sure many of you have read this but please read if you
haven’t, and re-read if you have already. 
There are many memorable quotes in the book , I have quoted
them.
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Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of
flight – how to get from shore to food and back again. For most
gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating.
Interesting dialogues between Jonathan and his parents
“Why ,Jon ,why?” His mother asked. “Why is it so hard to be
like the rest of the flock, Jon? Why can’t you leave low flying to
the pelicans, the albatross? Why don’t you eat? Jon, you are
bone and feathers!”
“I don’t mind being bone and feathers, Mum. I just want to know
what I can do in the air and what I can’t, that’s all. I just want to
know”
“See here, Jonathan,” said his father, not unkindly. “Winter isn’t
far away. Boats will be few, and the surface fish will be
swimming deep. If you must study, then study food, and how to
get it. This flying business is all very well, but you can’t eat a
glide, you know. Dont’t you forget that the reason you fly is to
eat”
After the failures Jonathn is disappointed :
As he sank low in the water, a strange hollow voice sounded
within him. There’s no way around it. I am a seagull. I am
limited by nature. If I were meant to learn so much about flying,
I’d have charts for brains. If I were meant to fly at speed I’d have
falcon’s short wings, and live on mice instead of fish. My father
was right. I must forget this foolishness. I must fly home to the
Flock and be content as I am, as a poor limited seagull.
When he discovers the technique of flying :
How much more there is now to living! Instead of our drab
slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there’s 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!
The Elder of the Council bashing Jonathan :
“…one day, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, you shall learn that
irresponsibility does not pay. Life is the unknown and the
unknowable, except that we are put into this world to eat, to
stay alive as long we possibly can.”
Jonathan raising voice against the Council :
“Who is more responsible than a gull who finds and follows
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! “
What he had once hoped for the Flock, he now gained for
himself alone; he learned to fly, and was not sorry for the price
that he had paid.
Jonathan Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and
anger are the reasons that gull’s life is so short and with these
gone from his thought, he lived a long fine life indeed.
The same rule holds for us now, of course: we choose our
next world through what we learn in this one. Learn nothing ,
and the next is the same as this one, all the same limitations
and lead weights to overcome”
When Jonathan asks, if heaven exists :
“No, Jonathan, there is no such place. Heaven is not a place,
and it is not a time. Heaven is being perfect.”
The Elder explains :
“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.”
“To fly as fast as thought, to anywhere that is,” he said,”you
must begin by knowing that you have already arrived…”
Each of us is in truth an idea of the Great Gull, an unlimited
idea of freedom,”
“Well sure, O.K. they’re Outcast,” said some of the younger
gulls, “but hey, man, where did they learn to fly like that?”
When a handicap gull asks if he can fly :
“Come along then.” said Jonathan. “Climb with me away from
the ground, and we’ll begin.”
“You don’t understand My wing. I can’t move my wing.”
“Maynard Gull, you have the freedom to be yourself, your true
self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way.It is the
Law of the Great Gull, the Law that Is.”
“Are you saying I can fly?”
“I say you are free.”
Jonathan addressing his Flock
He spoke of very simple things – that it is right for a gull to
fly,that freedom is the very nature of his being, that whatever
stands against that freedom must be set aside, be it ritual or
superstition or limitation in any form.
“Set aside,” came a voice from the multitude, “even if it be the
Law of the Flock?”
“The only true law is that which leads to freedom,” Jonathan
said.
“There is no other.”
“How do you expect us to fly as you fly?” came another voice.
“You are special and gifted and divine, above other birds.”
Jonathan sighs :
Jonathan sighed. The price of being misunderstood, he
thought. They call you devil or they call you god.
“The trick Fletcher is that we are trying to overcome our
limitations in order, patiently, We don’t tackle flying through rock
until a little later in the program.”
“Jonathan!”.
“Also known as the Son of the Great Gull ” his instructor said
dryly,
“What are you doing here? The cliff! Haven’t I didn’t I.., die?”
“Oh, Fletch, come on. Think. If you are talking to me now, then
obviously you didn’t die, did you? What you did manage to do
was to change your level of consciousness rather abruptly.
“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?”
Farewell of Jonathan
A moment later Jonathan’s body wavered in the air,
shimmering, and began to go transparent. “Don’t let them
spread silly rumors about me, or make me a god. O.K.,
Fletch? I’m a seagull. I like to fly, maybe…”