Richard Bach - Jonathan Livingston Seagull



Part 1


It was morning, and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a gentle sea.


A mile from shore a fishing boat chummed the water, and the word for Breakfast Flock flashed
through the air, till a crowd of a thousand seagulls came to dodge and fight for bits of food. It
was another busy day beginning.


But way off alone, out by himself beyond boat and shore, Jonathan Livingston Seagull was
practicing. A hundred feet in the sky helowered his webbed feet, lifted his beak, and strained to
hold a painful hardtwisted curve through his wings. The curve meant that he would fly slowly,
andnow he slowed until the wind was a whisper in his face, until the ocean stoodstill beneath him.
He narrowed his eyes in fierce concentration, held his breath, forced one ... single ... more ...
inch ... of ... curve .... Then his feathers ruffled, he stalled and fell.


Seagulls, as you know, never falter, never stall. To stall in the air is for them disgraced and it
is dishonor.


PART 2


When Jonathan Seagull joined the Flock on the beach, it was full night. He was dizzy and terribly
tired. Yet in delight he flew a loop to landing, with a snap roll just before touchdown. When they
hear of it, he thought, of the Breakthrough, they'll be wild with joy. 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 list 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 years head hummed and glowed with promise.


The gulls were flocked into the Council Gathering when he landed, and apparently had been so
flocked for sometime. They were, in fact, waiting.


"Jonathan Livingston Seagull! Stand to Centre!" The Elder's words sounded in a voice of highest
ceremony. Stand to Centre meant only great shame or great honor. Stand to Centre for honor was the
way the gulls' foremost leaders were marked. Of course, he thought, the Breakfast Flock this
morning; they saw the Breakthrough! But I want no honors. I have no wish to be leader. I want only
to share what I've found, to show those horizons out ahead for us all. He stepped forward.


Part 3


Jonathan stayed and worked with the new birds coming in, who were all very bright and quick with
their lessons. but the old feeling came back, and he couldn't help but think that there might be
one or two gulls back on Earth who would be able to learn, too. How much more would he have known
by now if Chaing had come to him on the day that he was Outcast!


"Sully, I must go back," he said at last. "Your students are doing well. They can help you bring
the newcomers along."


Sullivan sighed, but he did not argue. "I think I'll miss you, Jonathan," was all that he said.


"Sully, for shame!" Jonathan said in reproach, "and don't be foolish! What are we trying to
practise every day? If our friendshop depends on things like space and time, then when we finally
overcome space and time, we've destroyed our own brotherhood! But overcome space, and all we have
left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now. And in the middle of Here and Now, don't
you think that we might see each other once or twice?"


Sullivan Seagull laughed in spite of himself. "You crazy bird," he said kindly. "If anybody can
show someone on the ground how to see a thousand miles, it will be Jonathan Livingston Seagull.: He
looked at the sand. "Good-bye, Jon, my friend."


"Good-bye, Sully. We'll meet again." And with that, Jonathan held in thought an image of the great
gull-flocks on the shore of another time, and he knew with practiced ease that he was not bone and
feather but a perfect idea of freedom and fight, limited by nothing at all.