I met Jonathan one evening when my friend passed me a book he recently read, called Jonathan Livingstone Seagull. At the time Ugur and I along with other kids from the same apartment block were primary school students, in the 1970s. I guess I was in year three. We often got together and talked about various things, books mainly, or sometimes watched movies together thanks to the fact that our parents were also close friends and visited each other frequently. They enjoyed each other’s company and made a lot of occasions to get together. So did we, as their kids.
Ugur said he just finished the book called Jonathan Livingstone Seagull and passed it to me. The next day as I was reading the book:
”It was morning, and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a gentle sea. A mile from shore a fishing boat chummed the water, and the word for Breakfast Flock flashed through the air, till a crowd of a thousand seagulls came to dodge and fight for bits of food. It was another busy day beginning. But way off alone, out by himself beyond boat and shore, Jonathan Livingston Seagull was practicing. ”
In that moment everything was out worldly, I found myself watching him practice flying, his passion, a metaphor for freedom..In the coming years, I learned a lot about flying from Jonathan. I also read the book to my son when he was a young child.
R. Bach dedicated Jonathan’s life to the real Jonathan Seagull, who lives within us all.