Flying with ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’

One on one. Face to face. Again. And he remembers almost a decade later.

A message found its way to me recently. A former student of mine had wanted to see me. We had not met for almost a decade. He was a smart student but he was, at that time, confused like the legions of his generation. He had wanted to be a doctor, priest, teacher, writer, lawyer. He had a hazy sense of his identity, of his future and bid for immortality.

This young man is now a writer and lawyer. He took up creative writing in college and proceeded to UP Law School. And he had wanted to see me. I had wanted to see him, too. Out of curiosity, perhaps. After all, teachers like me would always want to know where their former students are now.

So we met. It was, indeed, an inviting morning. At first he looked no different except that he’s no longer a picture of confusion and machismo.

"Remember Jonathan Livingston Seagull?" he opened up the conversation.

Actually, the World Cup Soccer occupied my mind for I remember him as a fine and competitive student on my high school soccer team. I had wanted to talk to him about Ronaldo, Oliver Kahn, David Beckham and the Korean Team.

The turbulence of his teenage life was no more, too. And he insisted on his usual point-blank locution, Seagull still rattling his cranium. Indeed, I remember Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and will always remember it as my favorite book because as a teacher in literature, it is the first reading assignment that I give.

As a teacher I must, in many ways, assist students on their flight, teaching them, like Chiang, that learning to fly has no limits, that they can be where they want to be. The only thing that makes Jonathan surpass all the others is the fact that he never forgets to work on love. And that I do as a teacher. We have to love our students first and foremost.

This makes the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull truly my favorite book. Jonathan is a one-of-a-kind bird that spends more of his time practicing the art of flying than flying over ships, scavenging fish. And he soon learns the art of speeding in flight. For all the knowledge that he wants to teach his flock, Jonathan gets outcast as payment. Being a castaway gives him more time to learn more skills and in time he passes on to a new world – a new form of existence. And he surpasses them all with his skills and knowledge. He becomes a perfect, unlimited gull.

I thought that sharing these insights about my favorite book would help set the future stage of my students, teaching them significant human experiences. Like Jonathan who discovers that there are more who want to learn but cannot understand, I reach out and lead them to a world of discovery. For this is my vocation in the ministry of teaching.

Author Richard Bach shows a perfect example of a man against the world of convention and conformity. Bach’s analogy deals with living and the purpose of one’s life. His Jonathan is cast out from society because he chooses to follow a greater meaning in life.

As life is an ever-learning experience, a person must have the determination to overcome the obstacles in his life. The limits in this world rely on two things: time and space. "Overcome time, all we have is NOW; overcome space, all we have is HERE." And in between Here and Now, "We have a lot of going for us." That, to me, is one of the finest insights of the book that I teach to my students.

The one-on-one reunion brings me back to the classroom scene. My student’s thoughts are neither fuzzy nor nebulous any more. He no longer flatters himself with bumbling images of invulnerability, but rather he presents himself with moments of collective passion for life and existence. Thanks to Jonathan Livingston Seagull. He teaches us that we are capable of forming our minds, our thinking, our freedom. We can fly, indeed, and master the skills for a lifetime!

Richard Bach is more than a master. He is a teacher. He teaches us to let others be, not to remain on the ground but to soar high and far in the sky. "The gull sees farthest who flies highest." The farther we fly, the more we get out of life. That, undoubtedly, is the inspiration we draw from Jonathan. That, to my mind, propelled my former student to take off for his flight to life.

Society is a major block in this search for perfection. It is society that says, "Life is the unknown and the unknowable, except that we are put into this world to eat, to stay alive as long as we possibly can." Jonathan says, "Boredom and fear and anger are the reasons why a gull’s life is so short." The book presents many philosophical statements that the author uses to inspire the reader.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull will always remain my favorite book for as long as I remain a teacher. And I think I always will. I have taught a student, now a friend, now a writer and lawyer, to fly. And that flight took shape almost 10 years ago.