Richard Bach - Fotografie di Russell Munson
Il gabbiano Jonathan Livingston

THE REVIEW

"He plummeted into the sea. Into a sea as hard as granite. When he came to, it had been dark for quite a while. He floated, cradled by the swell, in the wake of the moonglow. He felt his tattered wings as heavy as lead, but even more, he felt the weight of failure. Weakened as he was, he hoped that weight would be enough to gently drag him down, toward the bottom, and that it would be over" _{(from the work of Richard Bach).}

Jonathan is an outcast, cast away by his kind, condemned to a solitary life. His greatest pain does not come from solitude, but from the fact that others ignore him and his ideas. It won't be like this forever, because later he will meet true friends. The Elder Leader of the Flock decreed: "Everything is unknown to us, and everything about life is inscrutable, except that we are in the world to eat and to live as long as possible" _{(from the story by Richard Bach)}. However, Livingston is not just any seagull; he wants to learn, explore, and perfect his flight: speed and techniques, even those seemingly unreachable. In fact, he will fly in the dark, an impossible feat for seagulls, astonishing even himself.

After countless attempts, trials, exhausting experiments, not always successful, he will achieve his goals. Marginalized by the group, with unheard-of sufferings, he will never give up, and precisely because of this, he will progress to higher and unpredictable levels. He will discover that the power of thought is capable of nullifying matter, time, and space, conquering new degrees of awareness, faraway places, and extraordinary powers. The experiences gained with the ability to see beyond appearances will bring him back to the starting point: to his kind. Thus, he will also convey to them the meaning of Love and Goodness, now deeply rooted in him. "We will rise from the darkness of ignorance, we will realize that we are creatures of great intelligence and skill. We will be free! We will learn to fly!" _{(from the story by Richard Bach)}.

Pure thought is perfection, our true nature is Existence in time and space in every place, in the present and the future. The body is only a limit, while the potentialities of the intellect are unrecognized. Munson's virtuoso photographs poetically intertwine, adding depth and sweetness to the author's words. When the same images appear on semi-transparent paper, overlapping each other, a suggestive effect will emerge. This gives rise to a reflection: one might think that within us lies the spirit of Jonathan the seagull, capable of evolving, striving towards the light of perfection and the continuation of Life beyond Death.

A surreal story. It brings hope to the heart and engages one in sublime emotions. The meaning of flight in this way is transfigured, assuming an absolute value and importance. Together with Jon, it's easy to fly beyond the knowable. Hymn to infinite freedom, to friendship that can never be broken, because it transcends space-time, and it can inspire dreams of breaking free from material barriers and rules of the "Flock".

A short story, without elaborate or artificial terminology, but unforgettable. "It is nothing more than your thought, a form of your thought, visible, concrete. Break the chains that imprison thought, and even your body will be free"_{(words of Richard Bach)}.

Winged regards ^©.