This kind of thinking, he found, is not the way to make one's self popular with other birds. Even his parents were dismayed as Jonathan spent whole days alone, making hundreds of low-level glides, experimenting.

For most gulls it was not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight.

And like no other sculpture in the history of art, the dead engine and dead airframe come to life at the touch of a human hand, and join their life with the pilot's own.

Listen,' he said. 'It's important. We are all. Free. To do. Whatever. We want. To do.

Mistakes - call them unexpected learning experiences.

Of course there’s destiny, but destiny doesn’t push you where you don’t want to go. You’re the ones who choose. Destiny is up to you.

The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go.