Realizations Inc

Vol. 3, No. 4

She was there, too--Genevieve Roosevelt Seagull--although Richard Bach focused his story on a relative of hers, Jonathon Livingston Seagull. Like her cousin, Genevieve was a one-in-a-million bird. She had sensed early on that there was more to life than eating, preening, fighting, agonizing about her place in the flock, and trying to keep everyone in her family happy.

There was flying! Not just as a means of locomotion, or to find food, but for the pure joy of it. Of course, it was even more dangerous for her. It was bad enough for Jonathon to breech the rules of the block, to be cast out, and to know he would never be reflocked. For her, the consequences could be death. Female seagulls were to be about the business of caring for the nest, the fledglings, whatever promoted the good of the flock, and always within the boundaries of block rules. Not flying, for heaven’s sake!

So while Jonathon was off alone striving for excellence, learning what was possible to do in the air, Genevieve flew under cover of night. After her work was done and the other seagulls were fast asleep, her webbed feet would tiptoe to the edge of the cliff and she would fall off into silent flight.

Sometimes, far out at sea, she would meet her cousin and together they would practice their stalls, dives, rolls, and glides. They encouraged each other to be the best they could be. And they talked about the flock and about flying and about their vision of excellence.

Gliding upside down, glistening by star light, Jonathan allowed that, while being deflocked hurt, it had given him time to concentrate; that the pursuit of excellence, while lonely, was also exciting. And there was always the hope that another seagull might want to know more than how to survive simple flight.

Over time, as their skills and confidence increased, Jonathon took to flying more openly, closer to the flock. Genevieve, however, continued her secret night practice.

It came to pass that a few of the bolder young seagulls chanced to notice Jonathan practicing the art form and they sought him out, surreptitiously at first. And the outcast became a flight guru for those who wanted to achieve excellence in flying. Together, Jonathan and his students took precision flying to another dimension.

One especially fine afternoon, Genevieve caught a glimpse of Jonathon and his seagulls extraordinaire preparing to execute a particularly outstanding dive and skim. Suddenly she could no longer tolerate being rooted to the rock during daylight hours. Suddenly she simply forgot all about the pecking order, the flock rules, and the penalty for nonconformity. Suddenly flying was more important than anything else.

Catching an updraft she caught up with Jonathan and matched him move for move. And they all were so good together that even the eldest members of the block risked sneaking forbidden peeks. They allowed that it was astonishing, truly astonishing, but the rules were the rules. Of course they defrocked her--there was no talk of stoning--but that just left her free to leave the flock behind.

And in due time, Genevieve also found herself functioning as a flight mentor to a few of the bravest female seagulls who sought her out surreptitiously. When their work was finished for the day, they would practice stalls, dives, rolls, and glides. Maneuvers that no gull had ever before thought possible.

Sometimes hey flew their own formations. Often they joined Jonathon’s group, each specializing in various aspects of synchronized flight. But always learning, stretching, striving. In fact, they became so good at flying that they found better food than any of them had deemed possible, no longer needing fishing boats and stale bread to survive.

Their secret wasn’t so much that they were exceptionally gifted, but rather, that they were doing what they loved to do and they were doing it to the very best of their ability.

For Jonathon and Genevieve and their family-of-choice there could never be any turning back. Not now.