Book Review – Running From Safety, Richard Bach

Two types of authors always become very successful – one, those who speak about the simple concepts of day-to-day life in an esoteric way, and two, those who speak about esoteric concepts that we normal people don’t always feel or understand but nevertheless are so fascinated about, in a simple way. Richard Bach belongs to the second category of authors with inimitable style. Parallel universes, quantum theories, soulmates and more such concepts, which the mind of a layperson might find intimidating are dealt with deftly by Richard Bach.
 

‘Running From Safety’ is of a similar genre, a spiritual/philosophical fantasy, where the protagonist is none other than Richard Bach himself. Richard, while he was a scared child, made a promise to himself to come back once he grows up old and guide the younger Richard, by teaching him about the ways and wiles of the world. The grown up Richard forgets his promise to his younger version as he got busy with his own life. Someone comes into his life to remind him about his promise to his younger self and makes him delve deep into his mind to find and help the younger kid.
 

Initially, the child Richard gets all angry with his older version for abandoning him alone inside the dark corners of his mind. But later on, with conversations growing between them, they get to share the ideas and memories with one another. The child Richard – was he waiting to learn from his grown-up version or was he waiting to teach the grown-up version some precious lessons?! This book let you contemplate the answer to this question.
 

There is another special reason to like this book. With Life turning quite magical these days, with every question of mine finding an answer in some form or another, this book reinforced my recent realizations about some aspects of Life. There are three of my realizations that were supported by this book. They are:
1.    No matter how bad people appear to us, each and every one of us is special and serves a purpose,
2.    Not believing in only what the senses can convey – touch, smell, feel, hear and see, and
3.    Only we can choose to transform us into the person that we want to be.
 

If you are a person that believes in Life beyond the perceivable senses, if you find spiritual fantasy to be a fascinating subject, you will definitely love this book. Pick it up and be ready for some deep diving into your heart!

Ashok Krishna