Category: Letters of Literature
"What the caterpillar calls the
end of the world, the master calls a butterfly." ~Richard Bach (Illusions).
"If
nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies". ~Unknown.
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| The tweet. |
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| Since I can't think of anything to say, I posted it it in my Google+. |
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| Celene got a very interesting thoughts about it. |
It started with a tweet from a friend who asked me to ponder on
a quote which struck me as a coincidence since I posted the same quotation in
my Facebook status at the height of end-of-the-world brouhaha. I reckoned it’s
from one of my books so I scrambled to find it. Then, there it is! Included as
one of the maxims in the Messiah’s
Handbook & Reminders for the Advanced Soul—a kind of a bible for
masters—is the same quote she was asking me about. I brought the book to the
office and read it between calls, during breaks and even during team meetings;
yet I couldn’t fathom what that quotation means. I put the book inside my cute
backpack and went home after my shift. While sitting in a jeep, I felt
something cold on my thigh and was horrified that my trousers were wet, like I peed
on my pants. My bag was dripping. I realized I didn’t properly close my supposedly
leak-proof water bottle. Everything inside my bag was soaking wet. The Illusions, a thin paper back absorbed
most of the water and became a damped fat book.
Illusions:
The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
The book is a journal of the adventures and
reflections of a pilot who flies an old biplane both as a passion and for a
living. The narrator, Richard is a skilled mechanic and a pilot. He is doing
his hobby in solitude until he meets Donald Shimoda, another barnstorming pilot
who identifies himself as a reluctant messiah. From then on they become
partners in their trade, travelling from town to town selling rides—three dollars
for ten minutes in the air. As they rest between flights, they talk about the
ways of life, and exchange wisdom about reality. Donald is a weird guy who later
becomes Richard’s teacher. Donald got tired of his celebrity status and would
like to quit being a messiah. It is probably the reason why he passes his
knowledge to someone who may be a potential successor. Since then, they fly
biplanes together. Richard benefits from the team up, raking more money than what
he is able to make before.
The first chapter of the book looks like a facsimile
of Richard’s greasy journal which attracted me to buy the book from Booksale. The
story is a follow up of the best-selling Jonathan
Livingstone Seagull and carries almost the same tone. It appears like the
narrator in the novel is Richard Bach himself. Richard Bach is said to be the descendant
of Johann Sebastian Bach, the famous baroque composer.
The Illusions
can be likened to The Alchemist in
terms of allegorical representation. Richard Bach uses the student-teacher
relationship to convey his philosophical views in the book. A pilot in real
life, it is said that the story is about his earlier days in flying, and that the
two main characters in the story are two versions of himself—one being the
young and adventurous Richard, and the wiser and content Donald.
After serving in the air force, Richard Bach became
a real-life barnstormer. He also became a technical writer for a magazine about
flying. His novel, the Illusions was published in 1977 (according to
Wikipedia). The novel features quotes from the Messiah’s Handbook: Reminders
for the Advanced Soul, which includes the passage my friend tweeted abut.
Caterpillars
and Butterflies
The narrator challenges our perception of
reality. What we consider a reality may just be an Illusion. Reality, as is implied in the quote, is a matter of
perspective: “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls
a butterfly.”
You may view time as a liner concept, as in History,
or like a Facebook Timeline (when I hear ‘timeline’, what comes to mind is my Plurk timeline); or you may view time as a
cycle, a metamorphosis, or (as an oriental philosophy of) reincarnation. I favour
the latter. Change, as the cliché goes, is the only thing that is constant.
What about the PI, the PHI and the
e; and other mathematical and
physical constants we know? And what about stupidity?
Or corruption in the Philippine
politics? Aren’t those constant, too? OK, maybe change is not the only thing constant then.
Change can either be beneficial or
detrimental—usually, it is both. Change, then is a matter of perspective. And
when you say change, you will most
likely think of a butterfly, a mariposa.
And when you think of a mariposa, you
will most likely think of Rustom. (I actually think about Keana urinating in
the PBB garden). Seldom does one think of oneself as a caterpillar. We prefer
to associate change to a butterfly,
which resembles a positive transformation—how’s that for a better perspective!
It all boils down to whether you are the
master or the caterpillar. If you are a gross, squishy little creature; you
will find change as unlikely, depressing, the Dark Ages, the end of the world.
But if you are the master, you will flap your wings and fly with it, like a
butterfly hopping from one colourful flower to the next, you will savour the
sweet nectar of the morning blooms. When the day turns to dusk, you will find yourself
restful. As the darkness turn to dawning, you are full of excitement. When the
clouds cover the sun, and thunder rolls as you walk down the beach; you are thankful
that you don’t need to apply sunblocks anymore. When the storms of life come,
your spirits does not wither and your
hopes springs eternal knowing that there’s a rainbow always after the rain.
And there’s a pot of gold at the end of
the rainbow!
It started with a parable about a village of river creatures that clung tightly to twigs and rocks
at the bottom of the great crystal river. One of the creatures got bored of
clinging endlessly and decided to let go letting the currents take him wherever
it’s going. It was difficult for him at first. He tumbled and fell; and the
other river creatures ridiculed him for what he did. He refused to do what
everyone was doing and allowed the current to lift him. He was free like a
bird. When the other river creatures saw him, they thought they saw a miracle,
a saviour; they begged him to save them. But he replied: “"I am no more
Messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go.
Our true work is this voyage, this adventure."
In their
adventures, Richard saw Donald made the wrench float in the mid-air. We can
lift ourselves above the clouds if we will ourselves to do so. We don’t need
biplanes to fly. And we don’t have to go somewhere else to find a messiah. As
the beginning and ending of the book say: “There was a Master come unto the
earth, born in the holy land of Indiana…” We don’t even have to search the town
and swooped down to meet the messiah. Maybe we just have to look within
ourselves. Have you found your messiah?
Sources: Wikipedia and the book itself
(Illusions: The Adventures of the Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach). Thanks also to Celene who give her more than two-cents on the subject. Follow her at Google+.
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