{"id":2280,"date":"2005-01-08T16:05:02","date_gmt":"2005-01-08T21:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=2280"},"modified":"2022-10-09T15:04:30","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T19:04:30","slug":"soulmates-intro-to-richard-bach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=2280","title":{"rendered":"Soulmates: Intro to Richard Bach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s my first essay <\/a>on this topic.<\/p>\n

Now? I’ll take on how I got suckered into the whole thing in my early 20s, and escaped from its clutches within an inch of my life. Had to go through the phase, I suppose, but day-um, it was kind of ridiculous while it lasted.<\/p>\n

Richard Bach is a huge part of this story. For those of you who have never heard of Richard Bach (is that possible?) – he is a writer. He wrote the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/i>, published in 1970, which has become pretty much a cult classic. Or, hell, not EVEN a cult classic – it was on the New York Times bestseller list for years. Richard Bach is seeping his way into this post before his time … I wanted to contain my comments on him to its own post, but I can’t help it.<\/p>\n

Richard Bach has written quite a few books, but it was in the mid-80s to mid-90s that he started this whole “soulmate” thing.<\/p>\n

Up until then, he was, yes, a kind of New Agey type, and wrote books about pushing your own limits, and daring to fly higher (like in JLS<\/i>) – stuff that was very much of his time. He was also a pilot, and had kind of dropped out of regular society in the early 1970s to be a barnstormer throughout the midwest. He decided to try his hand at writing, and went freelance. All of his pieces on flying (Biplane<\/i>, Stranger to the Ground<\/i> and A Gift of Wings<\/a>\"\"<\/i>) are compilations of all of those early pieces.<\/p>\n

It would not be right to compare his stuff to Antoine de Saint-Exupery, although many people do (you know: pilot + writer = same thing) But … St. Ex is, indeed, the much better writer. I like some of Richard Bach’s stuff on flying, don’t get me wrong, his enthusiasm and wonder are catching … but St. Ex stands apart. Richard Bach has written forewards to re-issues of St.-Ex’s books, etc. Bach is in that very specific genre WITH St.Ex, to be sure: People who are pilots who also can write about their experiences in truly poetic terms, and can get across to a land-bound audience what it is like to fly. The magic of it.<\/p>\n

That is Richard Bach’s deal.<\/p>\n

But then … he got married. In the mid-1980s. And wrote three books over the next ten years which turned him into THE soulmate guru. It’s all about the search for the “perfect” woman. And then … holy mackerel … he finds her. They marry. All is well. Magic reigns. Soulmates exist. Let’s fly through the ether together.<\/p>\n

His 3 books about love and relationships are called The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, One<\/a>\"\"<\/i> and Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spirit<\/a>\"\"<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I have read all of these books, and I read them AS they were coming out. I was into the whole Richard Bach phenomena thing AS it was going on. And lemme tell ya – those books have been gathering dust on my shelf for over ten years now, I haven’t picked them up, touched them, flipped through them since then (well, until yesterday … in getting ready for this post). It is a very odd feeling. There was a good six years in my life when I NEEDED new books from Richard Bach. He wasn’t prolific enough for me. I stood in line for three hours in Chicago to meet him and get him to sign my copy of Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, stuff like that. This man MEANT something to me.<\/p>\n

And then … poof … it’s like he never meant anything to me at all.<\/p>\n

It’s like it never happened. Most of my books that I once adored are STILL adored books. (Wrinkle in Time<\/i>. Lion, the witch and the wardrobe<\/i>. Jane Eyre<\/i>.) My taste in books is pretty consistent. But Richard Bach’s stuff? For a while there, his books were DOG-eared from re-readings, and now? I can barely remember a word.<\/p>\n

Strange. It’s like I was under hypnosis or something, heh heh. My views on him and those books have changed so drastically that I wonder at my old self, I wonder at her credulity, I wonder what was going on with her that she needed to believe his words so desperately …<\/p>\n

Now I’m just marveling at how much one can change. These views I had were deeply held. And now … there’s almost no remnant left of them at all. The Sheila back then would have been unable to comprehend the Sheila now who says, “If there’s one phrase I wish I could STRIKE from the English language, it’s “soul mate”.” The Sheila then would have thought: ho-ly crap-ola … what on EARTH happened to me that would make me say that??? The Sheila then would have looked on such a transformation as a tragedy. The Sheila now sees it as liberation.<\/p>\n

I guess I better get down to brass tacks here, I can already tell I’m circling the plane with this topic …<\/p>\n

More to come …<\/p>\n

Consider this an intro to Richard Bach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s my first essay on this topic. Now? I’ll take on how I got suckered into the whole thing in my early 20s, and escaped from its clutches within an inch of my life. Had to go through the phase, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[265,1048],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2280"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178181,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280\/revisions\/178181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}