What happens
to someone who follows a passion that doesn’t fall under society norms? He will
not be accepted in society, right? And after going through all the rejections
and hatred from his own people will he still have the courage to bring in a
social change in society?
This is the
story of Richard Bach’s Johnathan Livingston Seagull a seagull who wanted to
learn about flight. Unlike other seagulls who were just interested in finding
food Johnathan was an exception. He would spend his time practicing flight. His
flock did not approve of his behavior nor did his parents and they labeled him
an outcast. But this did not break him or his dream. Instead, he rose to
freedom from limitations of mind, body, and soul to become one of the best flyers
ever, and also inspired many seagulls to become limitless.
I just
finished reading this wonderful book.
In this blog let me share with you my thoughts on this book.
Book Summary
Chapter 1 – Johnathan is outcast
“Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight- how to get from shore to food and back. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters but eating”
Johnathan Livingston
Seagull was different he loved to fly and spent hours practicing flight. Food
did not bother him. This dismayed others in his flock and also his family.
“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? Son, you are bone and feathers”.
But Jon was
committed to what he loved. He wanted to learn more about speed and flight so
he kept practicing. Each day he learned more about flying.
When he had
learned considerably he thought of sharing his knowledge with his flock
Equipped with the
knowledge he went to talk to his flock about his new skill and how it could
help the flock.
“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 fly!”
But the folk
did not let him speak, instead, they pronounced him outcast and turned their
backs on him for not following the flock rules.
This did not
deter him from his will to learn. He continued to work on his skill.
Chapter 2: Jonathan meets like-minded Seagulls
Outcast and
all alone as he is flying away from his flock he meets two gulls.
“We have come
to take you higher”
“One school is
finished and the time has come for another to begin”
These gulls belonged
to a group of outcast gulls from the same flock. He was welcome here. His new friends taught
him valuable lessons on flying, love, and kindness.
He loved this
new place and his new friends but could not forget his flock. He thought of gulls
in his flock who would be struggling to learn to fly and would have been
outcast already. He thought he could help them.
“The more Jon
practiced his kindness lessons, and the more he worked to know the nature of
love, the more he wanted to go back to Earth. For in spite of his lonely past,
Jonathan Seagull was born to be an instructor, and his way of demonstrating love
was to give something of the truth that he had seen to a gull who asked only a
chance to see the truth for himself”
After some time,
he returned to the land of his flock in search of genuinely interested wards.
Chapter 3: Johnathan becomes an instructor
His first
student is Fetcher Lynd Seagull, who was an outcast because he wanted to fly.
Johnathan
starts teaching him.
In 3 months Jonathan
has 6 other students.
“Outcast all,
yet curious about this strange new idea of flight for the joy of flight”
After a month
of teaching, Johnathan asks his students to practice in front of the flock. His
students don’t agree; outcast means we should not fly in front of them that’s
the rule they say.
But Johnathan
thinks otherwise “We are free to go where we wish and to be what we are”
Johnathan’s
idea was to reach more and more gulls. When he returned to the flock he was not
welcome, but he kept teaching his students in front of other gulls. It slowly inspired
other gulls to join his flight school.
“He spoke of very
simple things- that it is right for a gull to fly, that freedom is very nature
of this being, that whatever stands against that freedom must be set aside, be
it ritual or superstition or limitation in any form.”
After some time,
Johnathan went in search of other students in other flocks asking Fetcher to
lead here.
Chapter 4: The spirit of flight is killed by ritual and revived with flight again
Fetcher starts
teaching new students about freedom and flight. More and more students start
flying.
“Fetcher and
the other students of Jonathan spread their instructor’s teaching of freedom
and flight in long missionary journeys to every flock on the coastline”.
After some
years.
“The classes changed, with years from wide
soaring poems in flight to hushed talk about Johnathan before and after
practice; to the long involved recitation on the sand about the Divine One,
with no flying done by anybody”.
The new gulls
start worshiping Johnathan.
After almost
200 years, Johnathan’s teaching vanished and became holy practices that no
ordinary gull could follow. Gulls kept
worshiping him and created rituals. These rituals were made mandatory for the
gulls.
Few sensible
gulls started refusing to participate in these rituals and questioning the
authenticity. One such gull was “Anthony Seagull”
“Anthony Seagull went his own way, as did
more and more other young birds, rejecting the ritual and ceremony that
encrusted the name of Johnathan Seagull, sad at the futility of life but at
least honest with themselves, brave enough to face the fact that it was futile”.
One day when
Anthony was practicing flight he saw a gull, who was not part of the flock and
doing great acrobatic flight. He was fascinated and wanted to learn about it.
He requested the Seagull to teach him.
This way a new story of flight just began.
What is the message from the book?
You are what you think. Break the shackles of your limiting thoughts and explore new possibilities to soar higher.
5 Things To Learn From Johnathan
- No
matter how much you achieve in life you must always stay humble.
- Great
things happen to those who don't stop believing, trying, and learning.
- Don’t
let your failures affect you, learn from them and move on.
- Don’t
be afraid to pursue your interest even if the whole world seems to be against
you. Believe in your dreams.
- Think beyond the personal barriers you might have set for yourself or by your community. Think beyond limits.
Some Quotes from the book
“Everything that limits us we have to put it aside”
“Your whole body, from wingtip to wingtip is nothing more than your thought itself, in a form you can see. Break the chains of your thoughts and you break the chain of your body too”
“You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way. It is a law of a great gull, the law that Is”
“The only true law is that which leads to freedom”
“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you’ll see the way to fly.”
My Recommendation
I had picked this book after going through
Robin Sharma’s book recommendations, this is the topmost book listed on his website
here.
I liked the
story and profound message the author is trying to give on becoming limitless.
The story is
simple. Language is easy. The book is short, with just 4 chapters, you can
finish reading it in just a day. But the message is deep, if you don’t get it
in one read, do reread till you understand the message the author is trying to
give. I too read the book twice before writing this review.
Read this book
with your kids, they would love the photographs of Seagulls in the book.
Book Buying Link
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