Jonathan Livingston Seagull

ONE OF THOSE RARE BOOKS...Helping inspire a new course for life

I write this blog listening to Niel Diamond's musical score for the 1970's film based upon the book by Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The book and music are equally inspirational and I recommend them as a timeless return to dreams, values, and joys found in achieving the best in us. I first read the book in 1973 while in Lima, Peru. I was a young idealist on a mission to change lives, and the harder I tried to bring a message of change to others, I found my own life and mission in the process.

Another young American loaned the book to me, and I was immediately carried away to a place of vivid imagery; knowing what I wanted my life's work to be. I wanted to become part of what this writer had contributed to; inspirational storytelling, an art form I had appreciated since my earliest recollections of boyhood viewing Disney classics, and reading fairy tales of heroics and honor.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull tells of one gulls attempt to break from the crowd of fighting between other gulls upon the seashore over daily scraps of food washed up, or cast off by others. While other gulls were satisfied with flights designed to bring them an advantage over their fellow gulls, Jonathan had the idea that perfecting flight would become his ambition.

He had heard of fairy tales of the "Great Gull" and thought if he flew high enough, soared well enough, at speeds fast enough, perhaps he too could reach a perfection few other gulls ever thought about. Instead of fighting over cast offs Jonathan soon learned his ideas made him a loner and a literal cultural cast off from his society of gulls.

Jonathan was soon formally banished to live outside the society as a non-conformist. I won't spoil the tale, but you get the idea. Sometimes following a dream makes us feel alone. It perhaps sets us apart from others. It even has the potential to make others feel uncomfortable around us.

I am taking a break from editing, AS A MAN THINKETH...In His Heart, to add to my blogs. A novel I began in August 2006, it is now timed to go to the printer in one week, yet the discoveries I made two weeks ago, on a trip alone to the novel's setting, Ilfracombe, England, needs to be included in this final revision.

I have ventured into a life of no security, a dreamer's life where seeking to be like Jonathan, all I care about is how high I can reach, and from time to time, like now, am able to look back and see the view. It isn't easy to separate oneself from the flock, trying to justify a risky life-pursuit, such as novel writing. Not easy to go without the scraps (money) of what feeds us in hopes of finding the great goal an even better reward.

If you ever seek to break from the routine, and feel like finding your place "in the lonely looking sky" as Niel Diamond sings of, I recommend the read by Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull as a good place to begin.

James Michael Pratt

http://www.powerthink.com/