After spending the afternoon with my godson and dropping him off at his mother’s house, I decided to go to Cafe Venetia in Palo Alto as it was pretty close from where I was. Having nothing to do (first *entire* weekend in many, many years), this was a great time to take for myself. It was me, my Ipad Mini, tea, wine, dessert, old Italian movies, and a bunch of people who were amused looking at me and the splints on both of my broken hands (a separate blog about that – lots of interesting observations on human psychology and “mirroring”).
When I have time, highlighting the word “when”, I read a lot so my iPad’s Kindle app is normally loaded with at least a couple of books that I have not even “opened” and another 10 or so books that I am in the process of reading. Unless a book is written exceptionally well or I have a specific goal to finish it fast, I get bored with it and alternate reading it amongst other books.
Today, being bored with everything else, I decided to read a book on entrepreneurship. Well, it was more like a compendium of blog postings with related comments. I like the author’s approach to life and his business mindset so it was nice.
Anyway, a quarter into the book, the author started talking about Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull and how much he recommends the book to everyone who either runs a company or is thinking of starting one. Last time I read that book was about 17-18 years ago so decided to read it. Thanks to Amazon, it took me all of 2 mins to buy the book and load it onto the iPad.
The book is very slim consisting mostly of images so took me less than 30 mins to read.
The story is about a seagull who, as being different from other seagulls, gets ostracized and then finds his own path. While I remember the book when I read it before, I still got the impact from it.
On the simplest level, I can relate as I was ostracized and laughed at during most of my childhood and teenage years. In the Soviet Union where I was born and lived till the age of 12, I was considered a Jew or a fatso or both by different groups of kids and adults. When I came to the US, I was considered a Russian or a commie or a fatso or all three by the kids in my school and neighborhood. Funny that I was not Jewish-enough for most of them. It took years and lots of self work, kung fu, and college away from home to appreciate who I was/am.
On a different level, the book is one of the most philosophical fictions I have read with references to self fulfillment/enlightenment, messianism, and happiness. It is not surprising given that Richard Bach was very much acquainted with ideas of Jane Roberts/Seth.
While some of the ideas sound “New Agey”, overall, the book is great. When it came out in the 70’s, it was a path blazer. There was nothing like it. Many, many books and philosophies came out of it. From music to fiction to sports, its ideas permeated our culture. As childish and simple it may look from the onset, it changed the lives of millions of people. There are very few books that I know of (outside of the Bible, but that is a diff conversation) that were and still are so influential.
Here are some of the quotes from the book that I got to think on:
“Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time. Heaven is being perfect.”
“You will begin to touch heaven, Jonathan, in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn’t flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection does not have limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being there.”
“‘To fly as fast as a thought, to anywhere that is,’ he said, ‘you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived.'”
Lots to ruminate about. Here are some thoughts on them.
– Perfection is a state that we strive for yet have not achieved and possibly will not. Perfect human, perfect husband/wife, perfect car, perfect job, perfect life. All things in life require a compromise (for absence of a better word). We can get close 90% there, 95% there, even 99% there. The closer we get to 100%, the harder it gets to get there. It is much easier to get to 95% from 70% then to 99% from 98%. We make most decisions by approximation and either settle on the solution for something much less than what we are capable of (goals, finances, relationships, etc.) or do not start. I used to be a perfectionist. I would either settle and then feel crappy about it as I knew the result was not what I desired or did not start the task in the first place knowing that the result would not be perfect.
– It is important to focus on the end result and then work backwards. Decide what it is that is important as an outcome/result and then focus on that. As Emerson (and similarly Nietzsche) said, “Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen”. Of course, The Secret, the Law of Attraction, and a myriad of other ideas are based on this.
– If you desire something, go for it. Live your life for yourself as it is your life.
– Do not be afraid to go all the way. Even if perfection is a “long way” off, go for it.
– What’s important is to focus on the Here and Now and not on somewhere else.
Nothing revolutionary in any of it yet it is still impactful.
Thoughts on this, as well as anything else, are welcome!
In the meantime, it is time for bed…