Aubade #4 – “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”

There are books you read, and then there are books that read you. I recently read a brilliant book: “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”. And as I was reading, I realized I wasn’t just reading a story about a seagull. I was reading the instruction manual for myself.

All of us are born into some “flock”. This flock teaches us the rules of life: live safely, think about survival, don’t make any strange moves. For this flock of seagulls, the main goal was to eat fish. Simple, pragmatic, safe. But Jonathan was different. He wasn’t interested in what he should eat, but in how he could fly.

He was an outcast because he simply loved to fly. His world was speed, air currents, and the stars. For the flock, it was only the shore and the prey. This is the story of every artist, isn’t it? To be different in a world that only recognizes the “normal” and the “pragmatic”. To live as “one is supposed to”.

For Jonathan, flight wasn’t just movement. It was art, meditation, the highest form of self-expression. He felt euphoria when he cut the wind with his wings, when he defeated gravity. This was his true, living “self”. Everything else was just… existing.

But he was punished for this difference. He was exiled from the flock. They told him his dreams were dangerous and unnecessary. And he was left alone.

And this is the most painful part. When you find your true passion, your “flight,” but there’s no one around you to share that excitement. You are free, but lonely.

But—and this is where the real magic begins—Jonathan wasn’t alone. He found other seagulls like him. Those who also dreamed of flight. Those who knew that life is much more than just existing.

And that’s when I realized: our “companions” are not those who look like us, but those who want to fly like us. Those who see our “madness” not as a sickness, but as a gift. Those with whom you don’t need words, because you are both looking at the same sky.

This book isn’t just a fairytale. It’s a manifesto. It says that you have the right to be different. You have the right to seek your own perfection. And most importantly, you are not alone.

Somewhere, just like you, someone else is looking at the sky and dreaming of flight. The main thing is to find them.

Or, to simply realize, that you already have…