Tom Ryan's Newburyport - Question 2

Hitchcock?! David Lynch maybe but Hitchcock? :) The story goes that Atticus led you to live in the mountains. (Right?) If not him would something or someone else convinced you to move away? Did you ever think you'd be here long term? I mean you ran for Mayor for crissakes.

The late mythologist Joseph Campbell once said: "We must be willing to get rid of the live we've planned, so as to have the life that is awaiting us..."  I love that quote because it speaks of fate, and it speaks of transformation.  

I arrived in Newburyport in 1995 after being a bit of a gypsy who was always searching for something...just not knowing exactly what I was looking for.  But it seemed as though I found it when I came to town.  When I started the 'Toad I realized that I was meant to write.  Until then I'd written nothing more than what amounts to a handful of letters to the editor.  Not only had I found my calling, I also found a place to call home and I figured I'd be in Newburyport forever.

But then something happened.  I adopted an elderly dog and in the year and a half we were together he gave me a wake up call to some of the things I was missing out on in life.  The way I see it is that Max opened the door to change for me, and Atticus walked through it and took over where Max left off.

The book talks about this in some length but I'll just say that having Atticus in my life caused me to make changes and it opened me up to new possibilities.  Then one day we climbed Mount Garfield with three of my brothers.  It was a remarkable experience and standing on top that rocky summit was like standing on the edge of a great theater.  South, east, west - mountains were everywhere.  And right below us was the sprawling expanse of the Pemigewasset Wilderness.  Something clicked in me the that day.  Soon after that Atticus and I started hiking on our own.  A funny thing happened that first summer - things changed between us.  We were always close, but in the mountains we became more equal.  On the streets of Newburyport I had to be in charge, or at least guide him to live in a place where there were rules.  But in the mountains - it was though I brought him to where he was meant to be and he took over.  I just followed.

We climbed the 48 4,000-footers in New Hampshire in eleven weeks.  During those eleven weeks I continued seeing things differently.  There I was in my early forties and life was sending me back to school.  It was like I was getting an opportunity to see things anew and I decided to take it.

However, had Atticus not taken to the mountains as much as he did that first day, I don't think we would have continued hiking.  Who knows what would have happened.  Would I have stayed in Newburyport as I planned to?  I suppose I would have.  But that would have been a mistake.