Books And Me

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

A Bridge across forever

- By Richard Bach

I have to say, Richard Bach is a poet who writes in prose! Whether the concept of soul mates exists or not, is not something of a debate for me, for even after reading such a splendid book, I dare to believe that it can only be possible in fairy tales. Somewhere someone might or might not be there, but the values projected in this book, though bordering to be tad bit philosophical, challenges one to really look into the core and bring that inner voice out and see where it takes you. The novel left me in want of more though. I cannot help but feel that the ending of it was too abrupt or perhaps, that is just me!

As the story unravels, I felt that it was Richard Bach in the evolving, through the help of Leslie Parrish. What started as a friendship, through the lengthy chess games, and interesting conversations and the yearning to spend quality time with each other, slowly evolves into something much more than kinship. Though Richard envisages his soul mate as someone who is a mirage of him, slowly realizes that Leslie Parrish is a wonderful person, the sort of person for whom he waited his entire life for. But, Richard Bach, has his share of problems in lowering his defenses and surrendering his ideologies and letting the relation grow into something more substantial than just friendship. And the book depicts the struggle of Bach to overcome his selfishness and to give himself to this wonderful person. Leslie Parish comes out as an infallible person, who slowly nurtures Richard into choosing the path that is enormously difficult to him, the path called commitment. And of course, after that, it is about the journey the two together embark upon, pushing past the known limits.

The letter she wrote to Richard, when like all men, he too wasn’t ready for the long term commitment, was simply fabulous. Here is an excerpt from that letter:

“We have both had a vision of something wonderful that awaits us. Yet we cannot get there from here. I am faced with a solid wall of defenses and you have the need to build more and still more. I long for the richness and fullness of further development, and you will search for ways to avoid it as long as we're together. Both of us are frustrated; you unable to go back, I unable to go forward, in a constant state of struggle, with clouds and dark shadows over the limited time you allow us.
To feel your constant resistance to me, to the growth of this something wonderful, as if I and it were something horrible—to experience the various forms the resistance takes, some of them cruel—often causes me pain on one level or another.”
“Away and apart or together and apart, it is too unhappy. I am watching me become a creature who cries a lot, a creature who even must cry a lot, for it almost seems that pity is necessary before kindness is possible. And I know I have not come this far in life to become pitiful.”
“Richard, my precious friend, this is said softly, even ten¬derly and lovingly. And the soft tones do not camouflage an underlying anger: they are real. There are no accusa¬tions, no blames or faults. I am simply trying to under¬stand, and to stop the pain. I am stating what I have been forced to accept; that you and I are never going to have a development, much less the glorious climactic expression of a relationship grown to full blossom.
I have felt if anything in my life deserved departure from previously established patterns, going beyond all known limitations, this relationship did. I suppose I might be justified in feeling humiliated about the lengths to which I have gone to make it work. Instead, I feel proud of my¬self and glad to know I recognized the rare and lovely opportunity we had while we had it, and gave all I could, in the purest and highest sense, to preserve it.”


Those are few sentences I loved in that letter.

Any relation requires compromise, but to compromise to the level where the very essence of you is lost, is unnecessary hindrance to one’s growth. No relation, however special it is, requires one to buckle over the knees. And the discussion that follows this letter shows that Richard has acknowledged the special person she is and is willing to give this relation a try. And the book evolves to show how they stay together through the tough times and learn to grow on each other, how they build intimacy and finally about how they bring in a sense of completeness. The novel brings in a ray of hope to everyone who reads it. It gives wings to those hidden thoughts, the thoughts buried deep inside chester drawers, whose keys are lost in the moment’s fury; those thoughts that are buried deep within, on those sleepless nights with a promise to never put oneself through the humiliation of unrealistic dreams of true love! And Richard Bach does weave magic with the words and it is all the more special, because, for once, it is not a knight in shining armour rescuing a princess, but a princess saving the life of a struggling knight.

Though it is ironic that the couple are no longer married or lawfully wedded, it just makes the biography all the more real and not a fairy tale. Love, surpasses many boundaries and a wedlock is just a gesture to stake a claim, perhaps!!! But, what is more important is that they experienced love and they experienced the joy of living together and growing on each others strength. Isn’t that what love is all about? To help outgrow one’s own self, through the inspiration of your partner? Richard and Leslie Parrish, show the same, in their journey across that bridge, with a promise that they would grow together.

"We're the bridge across forever, arching above the sea, adventuring for our pleasure, living mysteries for the fun of it, choosing disasters triumphs challenges impossible odds, testing ourselves over and again, learning love and love and love!"

The book is worth the time and the effort :)

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