Morning Pogue,

It’s Monday. Last week we started thinking about Jonathon Livingstone Seagull and I said I thought I would write to him because he intrigues me and I see he has so much to teach me. So here’s the first letter to Jon.

Dear Jon,

I am taking time off from my normal correspondence to write to you. I’ve only written to a single person over the last few years so this really is a big thing for me.

Why you?

Well I’ve read your life, todate, several times and each time, learnt something new that I can apply to myself. Like you, I am a learner of life so you will understand if I call you an inspiration. Yes, I know that you will be embarrassed, but there it is. Take the win!

In this first letter I would like to briefly take an overview of your life or more correctly, your journey because to say “life” applies a limitation in most minds. 60, 70, 80 years. But you are all about losing the limits. Living on a limitless journey.

“Sully, for shame” Jonathon said…”…If our friendship demands on things like space and time, then when we finally overcome space and time, we’ve destroyed our own brotherhood!”

Jonathon

For you, driven by your desire to achieve the very best from your situation learnt that your body is not to be considered a restriction but rather a means to your ascent into knowledge. When your earthly body had reached the zenith of its possibilities then you moved on to, what some would say was, a heavenly body. But each was just a vehicle to bear the real Jonathon Livingstone Seagull nearer and nearer to perfection.

And what, I ask you, is perfection?

I think the question has been answered for you by your teacher Chiang:

“We can start working with time if you wish” Chiang said, till you can fly the past and the future. And then you will be ready to begin the most difficult, the most powerful, the most fun of all. You will be ready to fly up and know the meaning of kindness and of love”.

So you set before us a path to the pinnacle of excellence, to perfection. To quote another:

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:13

And perfection is not a number, or an achievement or a standard. No, because a number can always be improved on. If I am the fastest runner in the world I can still become faster. 1 mph can be added to even the speed of light. Perfection is about being free from the limitations of measurement. It is found in becoming detached from the body. It lays in a state of being, that is termed ‘love’.

But even as I use this word I fear so many misunderstand it or have an extremely limited knowledge of what love is. A warm fuzzy feeling? A continuing commitment? A desire? Yes, all these can be found on the periphery of love as almost byproducts. But love is a force, a power that fuels existence. ‘God is love’ it is written. For the non-religious we could perhaps say the ‘Universe is love’ or ‘Higher Consciousness is love’. There can be no greater form of being.

Our body is limited and as such, we will never know perfection whilst we focus on, and battle with, its limitations, letting ourselves be confined by, rather that seeing beyond, these.

The trick, according to Chiang, was for Jonathon to stop seeing himself as trapped inside a limit body that had a forty-two-inch wingspan and performance that could be plotted on a chart. The trick was to know that his true nature lived, as a perfect as an unwritten number, everywhere at once across space and time.

I guess we are talking about another level of consciousness where we come to realise, to understand that we are all part of something far bigger than our bodies. That we are not individuals, not an island as the poet put it but rather we are all part of a consciousness which extends to all places in all times. Quantum scientist have known for a hundred years that particles can be in multiple places simultaneously and their knowledge continues to expand. But so many of us have accepted the limitations our bodies impose on us. Have come to believe that there is only so much we can achieve. Have chased numbers rather than perfection.

The gull who scorns perfection for the sake of travel goes nowhere, slowly. The gulls who put aside travel for the sake of perfection go anywhere, instantly.

But I’m telling you something you have long known, Jon. So I am going to take this opportunity at the beginning of our correspondence to thank you. Thank you for the sacrifice you made in your pursuit of, shall we say ‘higher things’. In giving me an insight into possibilities and an opportunity to live the life that I was intended to. It will not be easy, but then you know that. Misunderstanding, fear and rejection seem about normal for this life you chose but these are offset by the beauty and peace that can be found.

I’ll sign off here Jon. Until we correspond again,

Yours, travelling less,

Wic