Wanderlino
Arruda
Flying
up in the brilliant blue sky,
trying hard to hold his wings
in tight on a painful curve, Jonathan
lifts his beak, pointing at the
clouds…and flies. Flying
is very important, as vital to
life as living or eating, perhaps
even more, at least for Jonathan,
a seagull that thinks and feels
the flavor of the infinite. It’s
true, that it costs us dearly
to think differently from the
rest of the flock, passing the
days flying, just learning to
fly, far from common mortals;
content with the way they are,
languishing in the poverty of
their limitations. For Jonathan,
it’s quite different. To
evolve is necessary. Life is the
unknown and the unknowable. After
all, any seagull worth his wings
has to live to the shine of the
stars, analyze paradise up close,
breathing lighter, friendlier
airs. To live is to conquer, not
to limit the illimitable. There
is always more to learn…Always.
Look forward. Step towards perfection,
enjoy immensely whatever you do.
That is the secret of Jonathan.
Thinking and rationalizing differently
from other seagulls poses no problem
to him. Even though he is only
one in a million, even though
he has to trace an infinite path,
Jonathan knows intuitively that
there is more to life than just
eating, holding some important
position, being loved or criticized.
To live is to fight. Once, one
hundred times, one thousand lives
or even ten thousand! Until attaining
perfection, the irresistible victory
of eternal learning, where numbers
have no power to limit. No one
is excused from the evolution
of learning, and the eventual
truth that nothing beyond “will”
and “life” have sincere
significance.
Time passes, places pass and his
fellows pass, or pass not…while
Jonathan strives ahead, flies,
learns, trains, soars above the
commonness of ordinary existence.
Destiny is infinite; the direction
is ascendant, toward the heights!
It is completely spontaneous and
natural, because whoever shines
out internally, triumphs in his
mission of light. A destiny, which
holds to oneself as well as to
all other creatures. One great
marvel of love is its wondrous
contagiousness. Whatever holds
for Jonathan will hold for all
seagulls. Sentiment is the sanctuary,
and its peace reflects and flows
forth incessantly. The faith witnessed
in evolutional effort is the blessing
of the gifts of love. It cleanses
and edifies, and bettering itself,
it also betters they that perceive
its ways and rhyme.
Interesting,
even to a seagull! The more Jonathan
trained himself in his exercises
of goodness, the more he worked
to understand the nature of love,
and desired to return to the earth,
to be among his fellows once again,
among his own, those who cannot
see beyond the tips of their very
wings. What good would it do to
show them his paradise? One after
the other, all, one day, will
learn to fly. All will fly because
flying is very good. Francisco
Coutinho Seagull and Martinho
Seagull, old today, young tomorrow…it
doesn’t matter. What matters,
is to walk toward the infinite,
illuminating oneself with the
light that illuminates light itself.
An
excellent experience is the reading
of the book “Jonathan Livingston
Seagull”. A reading of words
and a reading of images, for I
have never before encountered
as illustrative a text as this.
As I read and flew with Jonathan,
while I felt the cold of the heights
and the transparency of the infinity
of spaces, I remembered why the
Chinese always put tiny images
of men in their paintings, especially
their panoramas. It is necessary
for us to limit one’s worth
before nature, make one see one’s
smallness upon the background
of life. Climb a mountain…or
fly. Cleanse the human shell of
the multitude of petty ambitions,
futile and unnecessary. Making
oneself so small, one becomes
great. Great, great within the
greatness of humility.
