Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a short story by Richard Bach which teaches one the meaning of life, the actualization of one’s potential. Most importantly the lessons of forgiveness, kindness and loving others and helping them to actualize themselves. I can’t recommend it enough, it is a beautiful short story and makes me think deeply on the meaning of life.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull was unlike any other seagull. He had a passion for flying and a deep desire to learn the techniques of flying. As a self-taught seagull, his family disapproved of his flying, often berating him that he should be searching for food instead, and that the reason he could fly is to eat.

Days passed as Jonathan practiced and successfully maneuvered a difficult technique, flying and turning at terminal velocity, yet when he landed he was called to Stand to Center, which was meant only for great shame or great honour. Jonathan was cast out of the gull society to the Far Cliffs for his irresponsibility. He had violated the dignity and tradition of the Gull family. In a world filled with unknowns and unknowable, the seagulls existed to feed and to survive as long as possible.

Jonathan spent the rest of his days in solitude but continued to learn to fly with greater control. He discovered that boredom, fear and anger are the reasons for the short life of seagulls and being free from these, he lived a long life.

As he passed away and was guided to heaven by two gulls. Here he met other seagulls who were like him. The most important thing in life was to reach perfection in what they loved most to do, which was flying. He continued to practice flight and learned from the Elder Gull, Chiang. Chiang taught Jonathan about perfection. Heaven can be reached by reaching perfection. Perfection does not have limits, it is a state of being there.

The gulls who dislike perfection, and fly for the sake of travel goes slowly, while those who put aside travel for the sake of perfection goes anywhere instantly. Thus, place and time are meaningless and heaven is neither a place or time, but a state of perfection. To fly as fast as thought, to anywhere, the trick was for Jonathan to stop seeing himself trapped in a limited body, with performance that could be plotted on a chart. The trick was his true nature lived in perfection, everywhere at once across time and space.

Chiang also taught Jonathan to keep working on love. Jonathan decided to return to the Far Cliffs to teach the other outcasts and his flock. On his return, he taught Fletcher Seagull, also an outcast, that despite being harshly treated with injustice, forgiving them and helping them to understand was a sign of true love. Practice to see the good in everyone of them and to help them to see the good in themselves was the meaning of love.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a short story with many ideas that are also found in Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Viktor Frankl talks about responsibleness as the main essence of existence, where one imagine first that the present has occurred and he has the ability to change and amend it. Jonathan was cast out of the Flock due to his irresponsibility, for not adhering to the tradition of finding food and survival as a way of life. By choosing to be irresponsible, he ceased to exist as a member of the flock.

Viktor Frankl also mentions the meaning of love in Man’s Search for Meaning. To love a person, he sees the essential traits in him, and also the potential not actualized but yet ought to be actualized. The loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. This is clearly seen in Jonathan Livingston Seagull. By forgiving them, Jonathan was able to see the good in the Flock and returns to existence as he taught them how to fly and to see the good in themselves. Essentially, he loved the Flock and makes them aware of the potential within themselves that could be actualized and to find that this is meaning to life, more than just finding food and fighting.

In logotherapy, Viktor clarifies that a man is responsible and must actualize the potential meaning of his life. This true meaning is to be discovered in the world, rather than within the man or his own psyche, as though it were a closed system. The true meaning to life is always directed to something or someone other than the self, it can be a meaning to fulfil or a person to encounter, or as Viktor calls it “self-transcendence of human existence“. The aim of self-actualization is not attainable in that as the more one strive for it, the more he would miss it, and is possible only as a side effect of self-transcendence.

Jonathan was able to exist beyond his limited body, by understanding the meaning of kindness and love and reaching a state of perfection. Through love and kindness, he was able to transcend across time and space.