Jonathan Livingston Seagull: A Story

What does it mean for a seagull to fly? Simply to get from one point to the other? Simply to get to the place where there is food? Young Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a different one in the flock; he flies to understand what it means to fly and to perfect it. Written by Richard Bach, the book follows the life of Jonathan, a seagull who is banished from the flock for his refusal to be normal and who goes on an adventure of learning what it means to fly and help others like him. One of the lessons that I have enjoyed in this book (there are others that you can draw out from your own reading) is that to be excellent requires hard work and perseverance, maybe even daring to dream and risk being alienated by others; in short excellence does not arrive while maintaining the status quo. Let me very quickly summarize this main point on excellence through the following observations.

Excellence is birthed through a passion for it: Excellence requires passion, being passionate about what we do and not just being satisfied with the basics. Passion for what we do should be what drives us. To be without passion for what we do is to settle for getting the minimum done so that we can tick it off our check-list. We see in the story that Jonathan is filled with a passion, he does not simply fly, he loves to fly. 

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. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else, Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly.

Excellence is gained through actively pursuing it: It is one thing to have the passion and be enthused about excellence but that does not lead anywhere unless we put ourselves in the pursuit of it. Sitting with folded arms will do not good in our search for excellence. Passion for excellence has to be married to the pursuit of excellence. It is in the continual committed pursuit of practicing what we want to excel in that brings us closer to excellence. Why is it that the rag-to-riches stories are such delights to listen to? It is because at the center of those stories lie the spirit of determination, of discipline, of going against all odds, of a spirit of actively pursuing something better in life, if I may so term it, something excellent. As Jonathan faces questions from his family about his obsession to fly rather than be normal like others, deep down he realizes it is only in his pursuing his practice of flying that he will be able to achieve his dreams.

For the next few days he tried to behave like the other gulls; he really tried, screeching and fighting with the flock around the piers and fishing boats, diving on scraps of fish and bread. But he couldn’t make it work. It’s all so pointless, he thought, deliberately dropping a hard-won anchovy to a hungry old gull chasing him. 'I could be spending all this time learning to fly. There’s so much to learn!' It wasn’t long before Jonathan Gull was off by himself again, far out at sea, hungry, happy, learning.

Excellence is sustained through the process of constant learning: As we pursue excellence wholeheartedly, we will definitely make progress but that does not imply that we have attained the most excellence state, that we have no more to learn. While our passion and pursuit may take us away from the company of certain groups, it will place us in the company of another, our peers, people like us filled with passion and in pursuit of excellence and some of who may have much more experience and stories to tell. It is from them that we learn but in a spirit of humility, acknowledging their stature. The pursuit of excellence is not a competition, but it is a complementing of each other so that both benefits and learn from each other (and especially the younger from the older). This requires, as stated before, humility; excellence is not about being self-contained, it is about sharing with each other the lessons that we have learned. Jonathan is led to this realization when on a certain flight he finds himself in the company of two other seagulls who are able to do all that he throws at them and with ease. They then take him to a higher level of learning where he explores a brand new world, where he is at home as he meets others like him.

They came in the evening, then, and found Jonathan gliding peaceful and alone through his beloved sky. The two gulls that appeared at his wings were pure as starlight, and the glow from them was gentle and friendly in the high night air. But most lovely of all was the skill with which they flew, their wingtips moving a precise and constant inch from his own. Without a word, Jonathan put them to his test, a test that no gull had ever passed. He twisted his wings, slowed to a single mile per hour above stall. The two radiant birds slowed with him, smoothly, locked in position. They knew about slow flying. He folded his wings, rolled, and dropped in a dive to a hundred ninety miles per hour. They dropped with him, streaking down in flawless formation. At last he turned that speed straight up into a long vertical slow-roll. They rolled with him, smiling. He recovered to level flight and was quiet for a time before he spoke. “Very well,” he said, “who are you?” “We’re from your Flock, Jonathan. We are your brothers.” The words were strong and calm. “We’ve come to take you higher, to take you home.”

Excellence is characterized by the desire to empower others to be excellent: As mentioned briefly above, gaining excellence is not about making a show of oneself. Yes, there will be moments where prizes and trophies are to be received and they are rightfully won for being excellent. Yes, excellence needs to be recognized, to be acknowledged, to be shown. But never on the pedestal of self-pride. The goal of excellence is to empower others to be excellent. The goal of excellence is to see others realize that this may be a hard path but this is the path worth taking. And therefore excellence in this sense is a virtue in the fullest sense of the word, for excellence does not exists for itself, but for others. Jonathan even as he enjoys the company of the new world that he is in, even as he helps in teaching the new arrivals what he has learned, there is something in his heart and mind - he wants to go back to his own home, he wants to go back and teach them what he has learned about flying. 

As the days went past, Jonathan found himself thinking time and again of the Earth from which he had come. If he had known there just a tenth, just a hundredth, of what he knew here, how much more life would have meant! He stood on the sand and fell to wondering if there was a gull back there who might be struggling to break out of his limits, to see the meaning of flight beyond a way of travel to get a breadcrumb from a rowboat. Perhaps there might even have been one made Outcast for speaking his truth in the face of the Flock. And the more Jonathan practiced his kindness lessons, and the more he worked to know the nature of love, the more he wanted to go back to Earth.........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.

The pursuit of excellence is perhaps what we all need to be reminded again today. In a digital world where we are offered a myriad of options and choices, the call for excellence can be drowned. Why? Because to be excellent is to devote our time and energy into what drives us most, rather than chasing after everything. For you and I to be excellent, it will require that you give heart, mind  and strength to what you do best and I will devote to mine without wanting to compete with you or rob you of the pride and joy of your efforts. But this is enough digression and now back to the book. 

Some other things to look out for in the book is the touch of New Age thinking that is evident in discussion between Jonathan and his mentor and eventually what Jonathan teaches others. The book also features photographs of real seagulls in flight captured by Russel Munson. Overall this is a not a difficult read, and most likely one that we can also identify with as we read the first chapter. However here is a small note of caution (for the first chapter), as much as we feel for Jonathan and as tempted as we might be to see ourselves in Jonathan, we will have to be honest enough to decide if Jonathan's plight is actually our plight. Jonathan is driven by the passion and the pursuit of excellence and the consequences he faces are rooted in this spirit is within him. And I hope we do not cheapen this spirit by terming or labeling every opposition we run into in life as being of similar if not the same plight as Jonathan's. May we run the race of excellence in whatever we do for it is in such a disposition that we will bring worth in what we do. To put in words similar to the author in his dedication section of the book, to the Jonathan that is in you, may you excel!

Thank you for your time,

kk