"Jonathan Livingston Seagull"

     In late December, Delycia and I promised ourselves that, in 2014, we would take one day each month to read and discuss a single book. So far in our one-book-in-one-day adventure, we have read Steinbeck's "The Pearl" in January, T.S. Eliot's poem cycle, "Four Quartets" in February, Natalie Babbitt's "Tuck Everlasting" in March, and then, on April 1, Richard Bach's "Jonathan Livingston Seagull"

     I suppose I must have read Bach's best-selling book years ago, but I had long since forgotten its simple wisdom. We both enjoyed the story, but more special to us was its message of awakened understanding. Jonathan and the gulls whom he taught slowly began to realize how totally unlimited they were -- how wide-open their future possibilities were -- and perhaps Delycia and I, in our own ways, better understood the same truth as we read and discussed this small, startling book.