Learning to Fly

"For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight."
Jonathan Livingston Seagull


Jonathan Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gull’s life is so short, and with these gone from his thoughts, he lived a long fine life indeed.

How much more there is now to living! Instead of our drab slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there’s reason to life! We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free! We can learn to fly!

Inspired by Jonathan Livingston Seagull, the editor of Blawg Review will be flying around the country on a JetBlue "all you can jet" pass, wherever these wings take me. Learning to fly; learning to be.



You can follow the journey by reading this blog post, which will be updated frequently in the days and weeks ahead. Last year, it was 22 flights in a month; this year, maybe more. Like a bird on the wire, I'll be tweeting @blawgreview and might even check in from time to time on foursquare to let followers know exactly where I'm at on this remarkable adventure.


Let's begin, where photographed above, at the Montage Resort in Laguna Beach, California. Where to next? You tell me.

Before we take off, let's make sure I've packed everything necessary for a month of unlimited travel where we jet on JetBlue. As they say in the airline business, there's only two kinds of luggage, carry-on and lost, so I never check baggage. Still, I like to have absolutely everything needed for any possible travel situation. This isn't backpackin' around the world like Tim Ferriss, with 10 lb or less. This is serious business travel. Just how do I pack?



I travel a lot; think George Clooney in Up in the Air, without the unlimited sex. What's in your backpack?



Arriving soon, in a city near you. Follow me on Twitter @blawgreview and here, where you can see where I've been on the JetBlue AYCJ pass, and where I'm going next:

LGB to LAS ... LAS to JFK ... JFK to DEN ... DEN to JFK to BUF ...
BUF to JFK to LAS ... LAS to JFK ... JFK to ORD ... ORD to JFK to SFO ... SFO to JFK to ORD ... ORD to BOS to JFK to LAS ...