Lessons

The elders, as I expected, did not enjoy our meeting. They asked me to leave, and I declined. I announced to the Flock that I was Jonathan, a student and a teacher. I told them I had once been asked to squawk for food and live my life for the next scrap, but I had refused. I told them that there is magic in flight and in finding your limits and breaking passed them. I told them it is possible to achieve perfection if you believe. I told them they were more than hungry mindless creatures, and if they'd like, I would love to share the knowledge my experiences have left me.

Of course, many yelled for my departure and cursed my name. This is a natural occurrence when the realities you have lived with are questioned. If one was to tell me that flight was useless, I would surely get frustrated. However, their reactions were beyond frustration and this is because they know I am right. My words were convincing and they realized that they have been living their lives incorrectly, that their fathers and fathers' fathers and so on have all been living incorrectly. And this is a scary thing, indeed. So what else can they do but cry out and try to prove me wrong? To try to vanquish my voice and send me away until I convince them completely that their lives have been lived incorrectly.

Still, there for a few seagulls who I know found acceptance in this realization. A few stepped foreword and asked to join my students. I led them to where my students and I have claimed as nesting ground, and I began instruction immediately. We have set up a system of going back to the main Flock. Everyday we alternate a pair of gulls to fly back and repeat their own versions of my initial proposal. They ask their family and friends if they'd like to live their life as nothing but beggars, or if they'd like to join them with a higher purpose. Sometimes, the gulls go straight to the elders and ask for their approval. The elders remain steadfast, but every day more students fly from the Flock and to my lessons.