Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spirit
Man speaks with inner child for length of book.
I imagine if you said to me, “Sheila, you’ve gotta read this book. It’s an extended dialogue between a man and his inner child”, I would punch you in the face, merely for misunderstanding my personality and taste to such a deep level.
However.
I bought it because Richard Bach wrote it. I always put my name and date of purchase on the front page of every book I buy, and I see I bought this one in December 1995. The date goes a long way towards explaining the impact the book had. I had just uprooted myself from Chicago and moved to New York. A huge love affair had ended and I was a WRECK. I was living in my brother’s apartment in New York. My stuff was in storage. I was in school all day long. NOTHING was familiar to me. I missed Chicago. (I never should have moved.) I felt completely unmoored. The whole “running from safety” concept was something I LIVED … not because of the book or anything, but because that’s how life goes sometimes. Run from safety. RUN. I really needed to hear the book’s message then. The book is all about taking risks, honoring the dreams you had as a small child.
I’m not sure this book would have as great an impact on me now. I’m way more cynical now. Life did a number on me and my dreams.
In this book, Richard, with soulmate Leslie’s encouragement, opens the door to a dungeon-like room in his imagination. Inside sits his 8 year old self, who has been suffering and locked up for 45 years, or whatever. 8 year old “Dickie” is PISSED. He has been abandoned. Richard is put off by the kid’s rage. He reports to Leslie that Dickie “was pretty annoyed” and Leslie laughs at him. “Annoyed? You call that annoyed?” Leslie thinks he needs to open the door and let the child out. (In retrospect, you can see there were problems in the marriage at this point. Richard was retreating, Leslie was trying to help him grow. Sounds good, but it was part of a pattern.) Richard and his younger self start hanging out. The younger self asks questions, Richard answers, and they talk about all kinds of things.
This is my last Bach book on the shelf. It’s been wonderful talking with Richard Bach fans these last couple of days. Somewhere along the line, I got rid of a lot of books, including his aviation writing: Gift of Wings, Stranger to the Ground.
I know I’m just guessing here, but it’s a theory: In each of his major books, Richard creates another character who is a perfect friend. And not only a perfect friend, but someone who will listen to him. Donald Shimoda in Illusions and then Leslie Parrish in Bridge Across Forever, and in this book – Dickie. What’s clear is Bach was moving away from plot, from reality. Most of the book is Dickie asking questions and Bach spouting off about his theories. A lot of his ideas are things I NEEDED to hear at certain points in my life, but if you read the conversation below, and then think of some of the long extended conversations with Leslie in Bridge Across Forever and you’ll see the difference. Dickie – a child – is a captive audience. Bach gets to be the teacher. He talks and talks and talks. Leslie doesn’t let him get away with that in Bridge. She is equally a teacher. Richard Bach is a closed system, even with all of his out of body experiences, and theories. It’s a closed system.
So this book is be a harbinger of things to come for him (and for Leslie). Increasingly he is interested in monologues, not dialogues.
It’s just a theory. Like I said, I got a lot out of this book. I was pretty miserable in December 1995, even though the changes I had made were all positive. But oh, I yearned for Chicago, and the man I left behind, and all my friends, and M., and Wayne Street … my whole LIFE was back there! To read a book about “running from safety” helped. It came along at just the right time.
Oh, and for me? The Principle of Coincidence is something I have used over and over and over and over … It’s become a way of life now, I would say.
Excerpt from Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spirit
“Why quit when we can change the world? Declare Life Is, right in the face of appearance, draw enchanted Choice, and after a decent work-filled interval, the world changes.”
“Always?”
“Usually.”
The air went out of him. “Usually? You give me a magic formula and your guarantee is it usually works?”
“When it doesn’t, the Principle of Coincidence shows up.”
“The principle of coincidence,” he said.
“You’ve chosen some life-affirming change in your immediate world of Appearance, let’s say. You decide changes will appear.”
He nodded.
“You declare Life Is, knowing it’s true, and you work your little heart out to transform what you will.”
He nodded.
“And it doesn’t change,” I said.
“I was going to ask.”
“Here’s what you do: You keep working, and you watch for coincidences to come strolling your way. Watch carefully, for it always comes in disguise.”
He nodded.
“And you follow that coincidence!”
Dickie was unmoved. “An example would help,” he said.
An example. “We need to walk through this brick wall, becuase it locks us into an appearance of life that we choose to change.”
He nodded.
“We work like crazy to change it, but our wall remains brick, and it gets if anything harder than ever. We’ve checked: there’s no secret door, no ladder, no shovel to dig under … solid brick.”
He agreed. “Solid brick.”
“Then be still and listen. Is that a faint muffled chugging behind us? Has yon bulldozer operator left an engine running during her lunch break and the machine slipped into double compound low gear? Is the machine coincidentally rumbling toward our wall?”
“I’m supposed to trust in coincidence?”
“Remember that this world is not reality. It’s a playground of appearances on which we practice overcoming seems-to-be with our knowing of Is. The Principle of Coincidence is a power tool that promises, in this playground, to take us to the other side of our wall.”
I think you are right about this being a ‘harbinger of things to come’ – Leslie had a far more peripheral role in this book. It has been a while since I read it, but the only time I really sensed a connection between the two of them was when they were out dancing. I remember being touched by that scene – in retrospect it might be considered their swan song.
The other part I remember really enjoying was the paragliding in the beginning. In that few paragraphs I felt like I up there with him on the mountain. Say what you will about the guy, he can really evoke the feeling and thrill of flying.
Paul – you hit the nail on the head. The scene where they go out dancing still touches me to this day (I re-read it this morning).
And also – YES to your comment about his writing on flying.
He is up there with the great aviation writers in that respect.
I’ve been mulling over your ‘perfect friend’ theory a little. Interesting idea.. On a timeline he goes from Student [Illusions] to Equal [Bridge & One] to Teacher [Running from Safety]. Don’t think it carries on from there though.. in ‘Out of my Mind’ there were other characters but not any real ‘relatedness’ [that I could sense]