Topic suggested by Athavan on Mon Mar 15 12:56:37 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.
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This thread is for both people who know and dont know about this writer. Those who know can send in you point of view on him and those who dont can benifit from them.For a start we'll discuss his best novels jonathan livingston seagull and the bridge across forever - two completely different viewponts on life brought together by a single word 'flight'. |
Responses:
- Old responses
- From: a2mongrel (@ 05-054.008.popsite.net)
on: Wed Apr 4 03:31:13
Carmen, it is very depressing, to find out about this -- was already feeling depressed prior to reading this news. I'm still hoping to meet my soulmate. I read the "Bridge Across Forever" book (just now corrected a typo I made, that read "Bride Across Forvever"..LOL) about ten years ago, or so.
Good post though, Carmen... very insightful and clever, how you drew the parallel between sports and the spiritual. Come to think of it, while taking your post into consideration, I feel a little like a voyeur of sorts, watching other folks "excel" i.e. --peering into their lives through their books. They don't seem to mind though, otherwise, they wouldn't write. Maybe some writers are like exhibitionists? -- plus, they cash in when the books sell well...haha :)
But, anyway, my goofy voyages and Pictures At An Exhibition ponderings aside, I liked this part of your post most of all "...we neglect to remember that they too are human"
- From: Michael Cloyd (@ cb51509-a.wlmr1.mn.home.com)
on: Sat Apr 7 02:29:00
Dear a2mongrel,
Thank you so much for using i.e. I was just explaining the use of i.e. to some 6th grade students today. You hardly ever see it being used. Being so old that I actually took Latin in high school, I know that it refers to the Latin id est, meaning "that is."
Realizing, of course, that this has nothing to do with Richard Bach or his writings, I should perhaps add a recollection, in all due respect to Mr. Bach, of when he was kind enough to fly with me in a Cessna 150 the morning we returned from Barnstorming in a little town in northern Missouri, the name of which I cannot rememeber.
During the hour that we were flying (actually I was flying, he was my passenger) he put me through the wringer (so to speak) in regard to reactions to abnormal conditions while in an aircraft.
He posed a series of questions to me as to what I would do if the rudder pedals were jammed and he proceeded to lock his size 14 flight boots firmly onto the pedals so that I couldn't move them. Thinking as fast I could, it came to me that you could turn the plane by opening the doors into the slipstream. Saying this to him, he replied "Then do it." By golly, it worked!
And so it went, situation after situation and my trying to figure out how or what I needed to do to accomplish the maneuver needed for the aircraft.
One thing that Richard, when he is flying, is always doing is looking for a place to land should the engine quit in mid-air. He taught me that you have to be doing this if you are to survive an engine out. He would pull the throttle out to idle and I would look for a field in which to land, set up a pattern and come within ten feet or so of actually landing the plane when he would shove the throttle to the wall and we would climb back to a safe altitude.
Although many people throughout the world have been impacted by his writings, the most memorable times that I spent with Richard involved flying, either riding as a passenger in his Parks biplane, or, as in this case, learning some very important aspects of flying an aircraft such as a Cessna 150. Now that I think of it, I never did have him sign my log for the hour that we spent together, he being a Certified Flight Instructor. Hmmm, I wonder if it would be too late to do so?
- From: smitstop (@ network173-99.wctc.net)
on: Sun Apr 8 22:01:51
Do you suppose Richard Bach is more enlightened than someone like Tony Robins?
- From: Daniel Fredriksson (@ humpc6.humlab.umu.se)
on: Tue Apr 10 12:53:45
Do anyone here have an adress or emailadress to Richard Bach? I would like to get in touch with him regarding using a passage from "illusions" in a songlyric I am writing. Please, if you have any contact-info to him, write me at dalfrn98@student.umu.se.
Thanks a million
/Daniel
- From: Carmen (@ host213-122-145-218.btinternet.com)
on: Thu Apr 19 20:04:35
Daniel; may I suggest you write a regular letter to Richard Bach's publisher, who will pass your inquiries on to him. If either his home or his e-mail address were widely know he would be inundated!
- From: David Bluestein (@ pppa28-resalephoenix7-3r7219.dialinx.net)
on: Tue Apr 24 01:51:49
Richard Bach's books were my inspiration in the middle 70's, as I flew for my pilot's license. When the Bridge Across Forever came out, I was swept away by the love and the trials that he and Leslie went through. I just finished revisiting that book, on tape. And now, in search of something, I'm not sure what, I've discovered that even their marriage did not survive their differences. In StarTrek, Spock once pointed out the joy of celebrating our differences, "The glory of creation lies in its infinite diversity, and the ways our differences combine to create meaning an beauty". My sadness is tempered by the joy that each will find in their new lives, building upon such richness as I can only dream about in their marriage. I share in the sadness, but smile in the memory, and know that somewhere out there is a soulmate - and all it takes is a journey from the space-time that I am in now to the place where she exists, where someday she will place her hand on that gate and open it for me.
Regards to all Bach fans,
David
- From: Michael Cloyd (@ cb51509-a.wlmr1.mn.home.com)
on: Tue Apr 24 08:01:36
Dear David,
So nicely put.
Michael
- From: Alan Noake (@ host217-32-140-165.hg.mdip.bt.net)
on: Wed Apr 25 13:54:47
Synchronicity brought me here. I don't normally participate in these sort of things, however I just finished a long day at work and I decided to browse the internet for a while to unwind before heading home. Suprised to find www.richardbach.com down - I stumbled across this site instead.
I have long been an avid reader of Richard's books. After going through a divorce myself and reading "Bridge" many years ago I was inspired like many other readers to search for my real soulmate. In 10 days time I am marrying her!
The fact that Richard and Leslie have divorced is not a shock to me. We are all living in the reality where they divorce. In many other realities they may be happily together. If Richard has taught me anything it is that you can only ever be sure of your experience here and now.
Anyway as I start a new adventure. I wish Richard and Leslie every happiness in their new adventures apart. What the catapillar calls the end of the world the master calls the butterfly!
P.S. For Mike - I bought the JLS video from amazon.com for £6.99
- From: D. Hilton (@ spider-mtc-th064.proxy.aol.com)
on: Thu May 17 14:47:38
I heard, some time ago, that Richard had Christian Science in his background. True or false?
- From: Srini (@ 203.117.167.130)
on: Fri May 18 05:07:54
Alan Noake: Your words/attitude are lofty and inspiring, behoving a Bach fan. I wish you well in your personal life.
- From: enchanted (@ spider-tp083.proxy.aol.com)
on: Fri Jun 1 21:53:25
Strong believer in the impossible here. Would love to chat via e-mail. It get's lonely being conscious in an unconscious world.
Peace to you all and wonderful journies
- From: Varun Mendiratta (@ 203.163.191.132)
on: Tue Jun 5 06:00:38
Richard Bach is an eye opener.....
well only opens ur eyes if u want too..
he is one of the best writers there will ever be.
His philosophy is so deep..u can take a dive in them and come out AFRESH!!!!!!
thanx a lot richard....
U have made live a better place to live
- From: Carolyn Mears (@ user-2injod3.dialup.mindspring.com)
on: Wed Jun 6 11:39:57
Hi Michael Cloyd,
Thanks for sharing your story with us. I don't fly, so all that business about opening the doors "in the slipstream" to turn the plane sends chills up my spine, but I'll take you or Richard Bach as my pilot any day. Obviously, Mr. Bach is as intense in real-life as his writing leads us to believe.
I glimpsed that intensity - and his shyness - once, at a book-signing in Atlanta. He signed my copy of Illusions. The crowd, 60 or so people, that had come to see him, was very quiet, probably because we all knew about his crowdaphobia. While he was hunched over my book, drawing swirly clouds and tiny seagulls all over the page, I leaned forward and spoke softly so as not to scare him. "Richard, you've been a friend for a long time. Thank you."
When he finished the last swirl of his name, he looked up and there I was, eye to eye with a man who had changed my life from drudgery to an amazing adventure, but who didn't know me at all. For a half second I thought I would choke on all that I felt but couldn't say. Then it seemed his whole heart and soul pulled his mouth into the most incredible smile.
His expression said more clearly than words: "Look, I don't know what to say to you and I know you don't know what to say to me, but we both know we've shared all these adventures and this moment is real special, not just for you, but for me too and thank you for having the courage to speak and please forgive me for not being too good at this."
We shook hands and my eyes went misty. It was a neat moment. One I'll remember the rest of my life. Sitting only a few feet from the table, I watched him sign book after book with swirly clouds and seagulls, never looking up unless someone spoke to him. For each person who dared, Richard's hand shot across the table to grip theirs, and from the look on each face, his mile bathed them in the same feeling I had experienced: that he had been waiting a long time...just to meet me.
That's "our" Richard.
- From: Traveller (@ 202.9.163.19)
on: Thu Jul 12 01:57:12
Sir,
Had anybody of read Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.?
He writes deeply like Bach.
Bye
Traveller
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