Richard Bach, a true adventurist at heart with a deep passion for flying, and a much deeper passion for freedom, comes up again with a question: “Why?” and “What were the chances of this happening…?” in his book “Nothing by Chance.”
Richard Bach along with his two friends Paul and Stu sets out to go barnstorming. Bach flies his “biplane” and his friend Paul flies the “Luscombe”. Stu is a student pursuing dentistry and passionate about parachute jumping. Barnstorming according to Wikipedia is:
“Barnstorming was a popular form of entertainment in the USA in the 1920s, in which stunt pilots would perform tricks with airplanes, either individually or in groups called a flying circus. Barnstorming was the first major form of civil aviation in the history of flight.
The term barnstormer was also applied to pilots who flew throughout the country selling airplane rides, usually operating from a farmer's field for a day or two before moving on. "Barnstorming season" ran from early spring until after the harvest and county fairs in the fall.”
Barnstormers were like “sky gypsies”, who flew to little towns and took passengers for joy-rides and made their money. They never had any destination. They flew with the wind and cloud, chose to go where they wanted to go, and landed where they chose to land. They were in a sense their own masters. They searched for the hay fields, landed their aeroplanes, gave joy-rides, made their money, and off they went! Bach was curious to know if this life style fits into present day systems, and if he could make a living out of barnstorming. Bach emphatically says: “And I had wondered. Maybe those good old days aren’t gone. May be they’re still waiting now….May be we could find those days, that clear air, that freedom. If I could prove that a man does have a choice, that he can choose his own world and his own time to live in, I could show that high speed steel and blind computers and city riots are only one side of a picture of living…a side we don’t have to choose unless we want to.”
Many people dissuade him from his quest. They tell him that barnstorming will not work out in Modern America. However Bach sets out along with Paul and Stu. He has to find his answers. It is the barnstorming season. The story is about their summer sojourn, their trials and travails. It’s all about flying, searching for hay fields to land, the pride of the freedom felt while airborne in a 1920 biplane with an open deck. It is about the mechanical snags they face, the marketing they do to attract passengers for a 3$ ride, the sky jumps, the day to day living they have to make, the joys and the troubles. Flying through different villages, Bach and his friends see the life in those remote villages, a totally different life in a different strata altogether. It is like knowing the soul of a country breathing in a relaxed manner. Then, as the summer comes to an end, Paul calls it a day and heads back to his place of living. Stu goes back to college. They have successfully completed barnstorming. They made their living through barnstorming during the season.
Bach says about their barnstorming:
“I knew now, without question, that the land of yesterday does exist, that there is a place of escape, that a man can survive alone with his airplane, if only he had a wish to do so. Milan had been good to me, and I was happy. But tomorrow it would be time to move on.”
Bach who is scheduled to go back to his place, finds himself in big trouble as his biplane crashes due to a technical snag. He lands safely, and takes the wreckage for repairs, supported by known and unknown people. After two years the biplane is ready to fly again. Bach sums up the biplane wreck with a simple question.
“…No freedom tasted, none of these strange affairs I called guidance to whisper that man is not a creature of chance, pointed into oblivion.”
“Which would I rather have - the wreck in the hangar or a polished piece of a biplane that flew only on calm Sunday afternoons?”
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The story raises fundamental and core questions that are thought provoking - about life with its choices, and freedom of choices ever present before us. Bach uses the backdrop of slow paced country life (which is in total contrast to modern city life), to bring forth these questions and we can relate to the theme and the quest easily and instantly.
The simplicity or the freedom to stop and smell flowers is represented by the life that is gentle, calm and peaceful where they land their aircraft. The sky is beautiful, spacious, all encompassing and there is a sense of luxury - luxury of time, luxury of choice, luxury of space, of looking at the bright sun, vast blue sky, hues of twilight and the constellations in the clear nights, along with vast fields, water spots, hills and valleys and the green belts of land. He talks about good friends and the space they give each other. Life is simple, and there is a sense of freedom and joy that is uplifting and very gentle. Set in a simple narrative and a rather poetic style, Bach comes up with the most poignant questions of life. "Why?" and "What were the chances of this happening?"
These are the questions that plague every one of us, at one time or the other – specially, when things go wrong. We always stop to wonder why this has happened, or why we have to go through this. Richard Bach comes up with his answers in a very simple manner.“At last, the answer why. The lesson that had been so hard to find, so difficult to learn, came quick and clear and simple. The reason for problems is to overcome them. Why, that’s the very nature of man, I thought, to press past limits, to prove his freedom. It isn’t the challenge that faces us, that determines who we are and what we are becoming, but the way we meet the challenge, whether we toss a match at the wreck or work our way through it, step by step, to freedom.” “And behind it, ….. lies not blind chance but a principle that works to help us understand, a thousand "coincidences" and friends come to show us the way when the problem seems too hard to solve alone”.
These are probably not revelations!!! Probably there is nothing new about these answers!! But this is his search for the meaning of life, and these are his answers. What is impressive is the way he puts forth his dreams and visions. What I like about the book is the freedom that is vibrant throughout the book. The freedom that always charms but eludes mankind, the freedom that everyone yearns for but which remains a distant dream. You can feel that freedom pulsating and inspiring throughout.
We choose to be what we are, by choosing to do whatever we do. Choices are made by us, nothing is thrust upon us, nothing ever happens by chance! To just live, or to be alive every moment, to be chained or to be free, to be what we want to be, or to be something we don’t want to be - everything is a matter of choice!!!
A perfect feel good and thought provoking book, and I enjoyed reading the same.
“Problems for overcoming. Freedom for proving. And, as long as we believe in our dream, nothing by chance.”
What an absolutely fantastic way, to end an absolutely fantastic book!!
