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.
