Book Review

Citation:

Bach, Richard. Jonathan Livingston Seagull. New York, NY, 1970. Pages, 127. Front pages, tribute page, three parts/chapters.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a delightful fable written in prose narrative, telling the journey of a seagull named Jonathan who is determined to find more to the meaning of life. Though fiction, this easy-to-read novella is simple yet profound, and can be applied to the life of almost any audience in the present. To many, the quest of Jonathan Livingston Seagull is not just another story, but a three-part spiritual guide or homily for self-perfection.

This book lives up to the high recommendations and excellent ratings it has been given across the United States. From one flight’s lesson to the next, the author brings his readers to the sky for practice in areas of speed, technique, and thought (psychology), while visions of hope, eternal progression, freedom, belief, and service are instilled in each student.

In Part I, Jonathan is made a very likeable character of persistence, determination, and perseverance. While Jonathan lives to fly (most gulls fly only to eat), and he flies very well, the author speaks openly of his falls as well as his world records in flight, so that each reader may relate his/her own experiences with Jonathan’s failures and successes. Although Jonathan wants to fly more than anything, there are moments of upset wherein he almost lets himself give up. Upon one instance after a particularly challenging day of high-speed crashing, Jonathan tells himself, “there would be no more challenge and no more failure,” in his decision to stop his radical flight pursuits. The author inspires readers endowing Jonathan with an ability to think through and discover ways to overcome the thoughts of failure that are certainly not unique to just, Jonathan, but a part of everyday life to those reading.

The reader is taught along with Jonathan in an active style, that revolutionary ideas are often unkindly received by those uncomfortable with change. Upon discovering the beginnings of his abilities in flight, Jonathan proclaims his excitement to share his new-found knowledge with the Flock he belongs to: “When they hear of it, he thought…they’ll be wild with joy. How much more there is now to living!...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 learn to fly!” And yet, he is outcast from the Flock, from his own family, friends, and leaders, “forever.”

In Part II the reader is taught that when “one school is finished…the time has come for another to begin.” We journey with Jonathan from his isolated, banished state to a new place. “So this is heaven, he thought....It felt like a seagull body, but already it flew far better than his old one….His feathers glowed brilliant white now, and his wings were smooth and perfect as sheets of polished silver.” From a writer’s perspective, Brilliant imagery is used to paint the picture of heaven, where “…the most important thing in living was to reach out and touch perfection in that which they most loved to do…” Bach uses simple words and phrases that sink deep into the heart when pondered. A reader may wonder, ‘how do I reach out and touch perfection…?’ as he/she is inspired to do so in taking their own flight, and a writer may be inspired to write his/her response to such questions.

Jonathan’s question in heaven is thought-provoking: “Why aren’t there more of us here? Where I came from there were…thousands and thousands of gulls….” The answer is even more profound: “We went from one world into another….we choose our next world through what we learned in this one.” If Jonathan “learned so much at one time that [he] didn’t have to go through a thousand lives to reach this one,” can I do the same? Bach leaves several unasked, unanswered questions for readers and writers to mull over while learning how to fly.

While Jonathan is on a physical quest to fly, his moral quest is also evident. “Is there no such place as heaven?” he asks. Jonathan is taught (along with the readers of his story), how to find heaven on earth: “Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time. Heaven is being perfect.” A gull must know his “true nature” to become perfect, to overcome limitations, and to obtain freedom. The reader is intrigued, and the writer is taught how to use narrative in a simplistic but profound, and even symbolic manner.

Through his process of learning, young, overzealous Jonathan becomes wise Fletcher Lynd Seagull who acknowledges that flying the speed of thought is nothing without love, forgiveness, and serving others. To be a student is not enough to Fletcher, who willingly accepts the call of one higher to return to those who still knew him as an outcast, to help them learn all that he has. How does one fly or teach others to fly when they don’t want to see you as anything but an outcast? “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.” Bach provides uplifting tidbits of advice for the quest of the reader and writer alike, in sharing his own flight, leaving both with the challenge of overcoming limitations, through an eternity of progressive learning.

Here is one more recommendation to add to the list of many for Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Young children, youth, early adults/students or well-experienced adults who want to feel young again, will all be edified in reading this book. Jonathan Livingston Seagull is not just another fable, but a quest for anyone ready to enjoy the journey, learning and teaching along the way.

Book review

(“The Poems of Emily Dickinson”----1999 edition, by R.W. Franklin. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Cambridge, MA)

Life is Life, and death but death!

Bliss is but bliss, and breath but breath!

And if, indeed, I fail,

At least to know the worst is sweet.

Defeat means nothing but defeat,

No drearier can prevail!

Emily Dickinson seemed to have an outlook on life that a lot of us at this time forget about. We worry about every little thing, and we put too much weight into so small things. We need to remember that “Defeat means nothing but defeat,” This is one of my favorite lines that Emily has written. I read this and realized that I need to not worry so much.

A lot of her poems have this uplifting feeling to them. She really had a feel for the way life was supposed to be lived. She saw things for what they were and wrote about them they way she felt and wanted not the way the world told her to.

Another thing about Dickinson that really catches my eye and makes me think is her interest in a higher being, in God. She grasps the concept so well.

Prayer is the little implement

Through which men reach

Where presence is denied them

They fling their speech

By means of it in God’s ear;

If then He hear,

This sums the apparatus

Comprised in prayer.

I find this poem so interesting. Often we are told that praying is how we communicate with God. We send our hopes, concerns, dreams, and questions, up to heaven. To a place where, at this moment is not within our reach. Though through our prayers we are in a way reaching for that place, but because we cannot reach, we “fling” our words to God’s ear. Dickenson says that sums up a prayer. We send our words to him hoping he will hear us.

Along with Dickenson knowing of a God, she knew there was a Son as well. She knew that he died to show his love for us, and that is love will never die.

That I did always love,

I bring thee proof:

That til I loved

I did not love enough.

That shall I love always,

I offer thee

That love is life,

And life hath immortality.

This, dost thou doubt, sweet?

Then have I

Nothing to show

But Calvary.

“That love is life, and life hath immortality.” Christ showed his love for us throughout his life, and even gave it for our sakes. The gift of his life was his love. And being immortal means you can never die. Dickenson was saying that the love that that Son has for us will never die. No matter what we do, or how much we doubt, we will always have His love.

In reading Emily Dickenson’s poems you not only find excellent writing, but I believe you can find inspiration as well. She captures her feelings so well. I have found many of her poems that seem to come alive and express how I feel at times.

I really feel as though Emily Dickenson was an inspired writer. As a writer this gives me ideas and hopes for my own creations. She wrote for herself, yet at the same time she is not the only person to ever feel that way, other can read her word and relate. It is for that reason that she has such amazing works and masterpieces.

I find that her writing flows very well and it makes you think at times.

Death is a dialogue between

The spirit and the dust.

“Dissolve,” says Death. The Spirit, “Sir

I have another trust.”

Death doubt it, argues from the ground.

The Spirit turns away,

Just laying of the evidence,

An overcoat of clay.

I highly recommend reading Dickenson. She has such a style. Not only do you get to read excellent writing, but you get to read words that inspire, and isn’t that what good writing is? Something that will inspire us.

It was too late for man,

But early yet for God;

Creation impotent to help,

But prayer remained our side.

How excellent the heaven,

When earth cannot be had;

How hospitable, then, the face

Of our old neighbor, God!

The Poems of Emily Dickinson (Book Review) (Revised)

The Poems of Emily Dickinson, 1999 reading edition, edited by R.W. Franklin. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachussetts.

Emily Dickinson started to write poetry early in her life. She started writing around 1844 when she was 14 years old, and she would continue to write poems for the rest of her life. When she passed away in 1886, she left a legacy of 1,789 poems, all of them expressing her candid and pure spirit. Her poems were mostly inspired by nature, and her observations of life have inspired thousands of people since they were published. In the 1999 edition, Ralph W. Franklin presents the poems in numerical and chronological order.

Dickinson did not put titles to her poems. Her style reflects a purity of mind and soul within the context of nineteenth-century English. Dickinson used a variety of forms in her poems: some are short ones, some are longer ones, some of them rhyme, others do not, but all of them reflect an innocent, profound, but simple spirit.

The Lady Of The Bee.

Dickinson saw in the elements of nature more than the rest of mortals. In several poems, she mentions the bee and implies what a bee might represent. For me, the most bold and basic poem that exalts the bee is Poem 23:


In the name of the Bee-
And of the Butterfly –
And of the Breeze. Amen!

The poem is so simple and paraphrases the end of a baptismal prayer: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." I found the analogy amusing and irreverent at first sight, but after pondering what each of the elements (the breeze) may represent, I found the poem honest and profound. Since the Bee is an intelligent creature that works hard, it is a good symbol of God the Father. The Butterfly is the most beautiful insect, in the same way that the Son of God is the most beautiful present from God to mankind. Finally, the Breeze, invisible and vital, is a force that moves things, and it symbolizes the Holy Ghost very well.

In Poem 1788 she wrote:

Fame is a Bee.
It has a song-
It has a sting-
Ah, too, it has a wing.

Most of the time, Dickinson writes the word "bee" with the capital letter B, suggesting perhaps that the Bee meant a lot to her. In the previous example is remarkable the way she compares the bee with fame describing that fame is temporary when she writes "it has a wing".

Some other elements besides the Bee that are found many times in Dickinson’s poems are the butterfly, the robin, the rose, the flowers, the trees, the mountains, the sea, and so forth.
I find Dickinson’s poems to be a continuous celebration of nature, human life and its relation to God.

Going to another theme in Dickinson's poetry, Poem 34 struck me especially in the line that says:


Met by the Gods with banners –


Since she wrote the word gods with "G" instead of "g", did she really know that God the Father and his Son were two Gods? I would like to ask her but it is not possible. Another poem that expresses profound values is Poem 980 that says:


Love – is anterior to Life –
Posterior – to Death –
Initial of Creation, and
The Exponent of Earth –


A very short poem, but it does not need more, striking, concise and beautiful. All of these are strengths in Dickinson’s poems. I find most of them to be inspiring and profound ones.

As a writer I can say that I learned many things from those poems. First, a person could write over seventeen hundred poems during a lifetime, meaning that human mind is only limited by time and physical conditions. Second, that inspiration may be like a continuous river flowing words over the years. Third, that inspiration may be based on observations of the simplest elements of nature and human life, absorbed, processed in the mind and soul of the writer and then given back as powerful and inspirational words from the writer’s pen.

As a writer, the Poems of Emily Dickinson have inspired me and given me the encouragement to pursue improvement of my writings, not only about the quality but also about the quantity. It has showed me again that it is worth to write and write again and to commit time for writing exercises either in the commonplace book or in my personal journal, practice that I had left for some years.

Why did I choose The Poems of Emily Dickinson? Simple, I thought I needed it. Since I love good poetry and after learning that Dickinson was a very important person maybe the most important composer in the American poetry I had to give myself the chance to read her. But there are other considerations as well. I just wrote "I needed it" and I want to say more about it. Since I was in elementary and high school and later in college I always studied science courses, depriving myself of reading good books of literary works, during those years there was a voice in in my mind telling me that I was missing something very important, that is why in the last years I have turned myself over to study humanities and English classes and to read the good books that I always postponed for "another time", and after all of these last years of learning I found a writer inside of me. I guess I always knew he was there, but never paid attention to him and never let him grow. The Poems of Emily Dickinson have reconfirmed me that there is not only beauty in writing but a way to walk.

I think that the reading of The Poems of Emily Dickinson is a must for any aspiring writer of either prose or verse. I strongly recommend it for several reasons: because it shows that clean poems can be written in a very successful way, that there is no need of bad words or profanity to impress an audience. That aesthetic can be obtained in written exercises that come from the soul and that almost any time of our lifespan is a right time to express our minds by poetry. There is only one recommendation before starting to read The Poems of Emily Dickinson, since the poems were written over 150 years ago some words may be not familiar in our modern English, therefore, get yourself a good dictionary and also be consistent in using the Emily Dickinson Lexicon website where it can be found the meanings of such words.

"High on a Mountain Top"

Saturday's Quest

Aspen Grove, Saturday, September 20, 2008

Aspen Grove, Friday, September 19, 2008

Family Lodge, Aspen Grove

Emerald Lake, Timp Hike

Science and the Spiritual Quest (Revised Book Review)

Science and the Spiritual Quest.
New Essays by Leading Scientists.
Edited by W. Mark Richardson, Robert John Russell, Philip Clayton and Kirk Wegter-McNelly. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.

Science and the Spiritual Quest is a collection of essays written by a variety of credible scientists of today. This book consists of two hundred and sixty four pages, sixteen chapters, and includes an index and highly informative introduction. Through writing each scientist has individually explored their personal beliefs and ideas about science and spirituality, how the two relate or seem unrelated in their minds.

The purpose of these essays is not to argue or persuade, nor to pressurize the reader into accepting one and rejecting the other. Instead, it provides us with insight into the minds of scientists allowing us to understand their points of view and to realize that they, like ourselves, also struggle with the controversial issue of science and religion.

Each scientist contributes a different story, and different perspective in their writing. Most have been brought up in different religious settings, and for some religion has not played a major part in their life. Before reading each scientist’s essay, they are each individually interviewed about their religious and professional background, they explain how religion has influenced their profession or vice versa. This method is useful in aiding us to have a better knowledge of each scientist’s style and personality. It also enables the reader to feel better acquainted with them, the authors.

I chose this book because I am both a science student and a spiritual individual. For the longest time I had separated my studies from my spirituality. Never before had I thought to use the two hand in hand, to compliment rather than contradict one another. This book helped me realize that this was possible, and led me to believe that science is a reflection of God’s intelligence.

This book shows that not all scientists are the impersonal, naïve and ungodly individuals that many stereotype them to be. In fact, some of these scientists used their spirituality to pursue such a profession in the hope that they would be able to find the ultimate truth. A Methodist astronomer, Allan Sandage, was one who pursued astronomy because he wanted to know the purpose of life. He soon learned that “ trying to find the answer within science led nowhere” (p52). Instead, this quest helped him to see that science can only lead to objective truths, and not that of theological truth. Kendler, a Jewish psychiatrist, also realizes this when he says, “when it comes to knowledge about our world and how it works, science is our best and least fallible source of knowledge” (p33).

However, the one thing that this book does not provide us with is a clean-cut answer of what it true and what is not, with this in mind reading this book should not mislead nor disappoint you. As Michael Ruse nicely states: “Religion does not have to be reasonable in a scientific sort of way” (p 139).

I would recommend this book to all who have pondered the question of truth and how or by whom it is determined; can the definition of truth be applied differently in different contexts? I think those interested in the dichotomy of both science and spirituality and who want to find middle ground between the two would enjoy reading this book. You do not necessarily have to have a great understanding of scientific terms, since much of the language is softened to reach out to a larger audience. However, those educated in science to some degree may find it easier to relate more to what these scientists have contributed in their essays.

The Development into a Vegetarian Soul

Eneas: Today I enjoyed a wonderful breakfast!
Jean-Pierre: Really! What did you have?
Eneas: I had delicious omelets with bacon, orange juice, some pancakes and fruit salad.
Jean-Pierre: That sounds terrific! with just one exception.
Eneas: Which is...?
Jean-Pierre: Bacon.
Eneas: What's wrong with it?
Jean-Pierre: It is pork.
Eneas: For sure it is pork! what's wrong with that.
Jean-Pierre: Well, I don't eat pork.
Eneas: Why?
Jean-Pierre: It is my religion.
Eneas: What do you mean with "your religion"? I know you are a mormon, and mormons do eat pork. What the heck are you talking about?
Jean-Pierre: Well, let me explain you a little bit. There are two things, two reasons.
Eneas: Speak up! I really want to know your reasons, being that you are a smart guy, I really want to know what reasons are holding you back of enjoying the delicious taste of pork.
Jean-Pierre: There it is, one of the reasons. I do not like the taste of pork.
Eneas: Are you kidding me!
Jean-Pierre: No, I'm not kidding you, and there is more to the story.
Eneas: Now you are really intriguing me, I want to know that story.
Jean Pierre: Well, I come from a normal family of meat eaters, starting with my mother who thinks that red meat or any kind of meat is the perfect nutritious food. So, I grew up eating red meat, chicken, fish and from time to time also pork. However, as far as I remember, I never liked the taste of pork.
One day, when I was 15 I told my mother about my decision of not eating pork anymore for the rest of my life. She was surprised about my decision. When she asked me why I refused to eat pork, I simply told her that I did not like its taste. She simply could not understand it.
Eneas: I agree with her, pork is really delicious.
Jean-Pierre: But, I also told her that I knew that porks were raised under usually unsanitary conditions. I guess back in my mind I also developed some aversion to pork because of that.
Eneas: C'mon Jean Pierre, when we cook it we kill all bacteria.
Jean-Pierre: Well, to make a long story short, one day she prepared pork, but she disguised it cutting it in very small pieces and spicing it, so I could not feel the real taste.
Eneas: did you eat it?
Jean-Pierre: Of course I ate it! However that night I got sick. The next morning I was still sick and went to the doctor.
Eneas: What did the doctor say?
Jean-Pierre: After examining, he asked me: "what did you eat yesterday?, did you eat pork?"
Eneas: What did you answer him?
Jean-Pierre: Well, I told him that I had not eaten pork. I didn't know what my mother had done.
Eneas: Then, what happened?
Jean-Pierre: When I got back home, I told my mother exactly what the doctor had asked me, and also what I had answered him. Then, my mother confessed to me that she had given me pork the day before.
Eneas: Really! In other words the pork made you sick!!!
Jean-Pierre: Yes, and my mother learned her lesson, since that day she never gave me pork again.
Eneas: Now, I understand you better but it is not because of your religion, it is because pork makes you sick!
Jean Pierre: Eneas, I believe in living the Word of Wisdom and to me that implies that I must avoid anything that makes me sick.
Eneas: Now I understand much better why you said it was because of your religion.
Jean Pierre: Great!, but you know what? The story does not end there.
Eneas: What? Is there more? What can that be?
Jean Pierre: Even though I did not eat pork, my mother kept feeding me with red meat, chicken and fish, and over the years I started to develop some kind of aversion to any kind of meat.
Eneas: Really! No, that can't be, you are kidding me.
Jean-Pierre: No Eneas, I'm not kidding you. Progressively over the years I did not feel like eating meat. I tried to avoid meat and when I had meat on my plate I usually ate half of it or maybe less.
Eneas: Are you serious?!
Jean-Pierre: I am. I just didn't feel like eating meat. Sometimes I have thought in becoming a vegetarian.
Eneas: Hold on, hold on, ...... a vegetarian?
Jean-Pierre: Yes, Eneas, I feel like I want to be a vegetarian, and I can tell you more.
Eneas: More!!!
Jean-Pierre: Yes Eneas, there is more. Anytime I have to pick a restaurant I look for a vegetarian restaurant.
Eneas: Jean Pierre, you have a problem.
Jean-Pierre: What do you mean?
Eneas: You cannot marry a meat-eater girl.
Jean-Pierre: Well, I still eat meat in low amounts, but to me the less the better. It is not that I hate meat, well, I hate it when I have it in large amounts on my plate, but if I have a very small amount of it, is still Ok. To me I wouldn't miss meat on my plate if it wouldn't be there.
Eneas: Well, you still have another problem, and this one is worse than the other one.
Jean-Pierre: What is it?
Eneas: Indecision. You are like that part of Shakespeare's play that says "to be or not to be, that is the question".
Jean-Pierre: ha, ha, ha, I hadn't thought about it in that way. I guess I am ready to become a vegetarian, but I don't have the right motivation to take that step.
Eneas: I see.
Jean-Pierre: I guess I need two vegetarian missionaries to teach me about vegetarianism, to come over to my house to give me the lessons and challenge me to take that step into the waters of vegetarianism. I feel like I am ready, but not motivated enough to take that step by myself.
Eneas: Nice comparison, but I do not know anybody in this world of God that goes around like mormon missionaries trying to convert people to vegetarianism. I guess there is a more practical solution.
Jean-Pierre: And what is it?
Eneas: Simple. Just marry a vegetarian girl!
Jean Pierre: I guess you are right, I just need to find one and that is not an easy task in this Utah-meat-eating world.
Eneas: You may try www.vegetariangirls.com
Jean-Pierre: Are you kidding me?
Eneas: Yes, I am kidding you. I don't even know if that website exists, but who knows.
Jean-Pierre: Anyway, it is a good idea. I'll check that address out and I will let you know.

This Is Why We Give

Because we have,
because it is good,
because is the right thing to do,
because it is needed,
because it is important,
because we want,
because it blesses,
because it heals,
because it shows the way,
because it is life,
because we love,
because you are worth regardless who you are,
because it was commanded to us to give it to you,
because it is free,
because it makes you free,
because we like to share,
because it is light to light your own world.
Amen.

The Path

The path implies direction,
beginning and destiny.

Made by hands of intelligent men or
by feet of the simple ones.

The path is as old as the first man,
the traveler of ancient years.

The path is a witness of sunrises and sunsets,
and everything in between.

The path is hard for some,
easy for others.

The strong and young and the old and weak,
both have to walk it, soon or later.

We are all travelers on this life,
walking the paths of life.