This is how I described my generation in a post from this past April....Some people use the phrase....paradigm shift....but transformation is big today also....others prefer to look it as....zeitgeist....when trying to describe the mood or the philosophy or the way of thinking for a certain age or period of time. In my day....we were poets and philosophers. Don't misunderstand me....my idea of a great poet is Rod McKuen....and Woody Allen was the greatest philosopher. I use those two words....poets and philosophers....in a very general sense. The music of the 60s was definitely poetry....much of it. As for me....I became a philosopher with an empty pitcher of Budweiser before me. We read philosophical books back then....and went to see artsy foreign films.
It was 1974 or thereabouts....Kung Fu was popular on television. I had read one popular book of a few years before....The Teachings Of Don Juan....A Yaqui Way Of Knowledge....and graduated to a newer best-seller....Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance....and then.....Jonathan Livingston Seagull....throw in Gravity's Rainbow and Kurt Vonnegut and Alvin Toffler....and I have to wonder how I found any time to read my required texts in college?
I reread Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull today. (it is under 10,000 words) I posted a number of times on how just before God had mercy on the lowest of the low....I was taken by two powerful books against belief in God....the God of the Bible....the only true God.....those books being the Pulitzer Prize winning....The Denial Of Death....and the minor classic....The True Believer. I was indeed searching....empty headed but searching....but it is Jonathan Livingston Seagull that I want to address here.
Jonathan....is a seagull....obviously. All the other seagulls lead normal lives....find food....and sleep....but Jonathan is enamored by the art of flying. He becomes an outcast....passes in his spirit to another life.....which he thinks at first is heaven....but there is no heaven. There are others there just like him....but he is told that he is one-in-a-million. He only wants to return to his earthly life and tell them about love....and true freedom....and the beauty of flying. So he does so....and many of those who cast him out earlier....now treat him like a god. In fact there is similarity after similarity of his life with....although never mentioned by name....Jesus of Nazareth. The point being....forget about learning anything about God....learn about yourself.
I was dating my wife when I read it.....as she just reminded me....oh well....she was warned. Eastern philosophy was very big with us geniuses back then....just as the gospel of Jesus Christ....was very big with many who were not as smart as we were. The Living Bible....paraphrased by Kenneth Taylor.....was a best-seller....yes....I knew that....but I'm still trying to figure this out....I just purchased the latest Vietnam magazine....(Autumn 2022)....and as always they have a one-page section titled....Fan Favorites....this particular year chosen....1972. As for Top Albums....they have Neil Young's Harvest....and Carole King's Tapestry. OK....they were my favorite albums of the year. As for best-selling fiction....Jonathan Livingston Seagull....OK....but as for....Best-selling non-fiction....it lists as number one....The Living Bible! Number two was....I'm OK, You're OK....a psychology self-help book that I also at least picked up. My point here in this post...is the dichotomy going on back then....and today also....in the battle for the mind of the younger generation....the one....Eastern Philosophy....(thanks in large part to the Beatles)....and the other as described in Revelation...."Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" (Revelation 4:8 ESV)
Addendum: I should add this. It was my habit after classes at Pitt....and probably a few hours at the college bar....to cross Forbes Avenue at the Original Hotdog....and wait for the Port Authority bus. The National Record Mart was a few stores up and I would stop in to browse the books....and a few of those books mentioned above were bought there....and I would start to read them on the bus ride home. Well....One night I picked up a book....the very book I am holding in my hand right now....Reach Out....The Living New Testament....(Ken Taylor's paraphrase.) I did not read much of it....but since then I could never throw it away.....but occasionally open it and hold the pages flush up to my face....and close my eyes....and smell the pages....that would for so long....(the pages do not have the paperback smell anymore)....take me back to when I first actually considered Jesus Christ....in Matthew and Mark and Luke and John.
