"The Longest Way Home": Interview with Andrew McCarthy
SAMBOLIN: Welcome back to EARLY START. Fifty minutes past the hour. Plenty of people get cold feet before getting married, but our next guest decided to take off around the world when it happened to him. You know him from some of the most classic movies from the 1980s, "Pretty in Pink," "St. Elmo's Fire," "Weekend at Bernie's," but what you probably don't know is Andrew McCarthy is also an award-winning travel writer. He chronicles his travels and the more inward journey that he took in his new book. It is called "The Longest Way Home: One Man's Quest For The Courage To Settle Down." And Andrew McCarthy joins us this morning. Thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate it. A lot of people know you from your 1980s movies, but they had no idea, at least around here, that you were a travel writer. How did you make that leap?</s>ANDREW MCCARTHY, AUTHOR, "THE LONGEST WAY HOME": Yes, it's a strange career trajectory, isn't it? It just sort of happened. It was complete accident. You know, travel, I was a big traveler, and travel sort of changed my life, and it was just a passion of mine that I pursued. And I met an editor of a magazine that I finally bombarded him, you know, to write for his magazine and eventually did and it took off from there.</s>SAMBOLIN: So, we have the image from the first story that you wrote, it was in Bermuda, talking about going for a swim with your dad, eating French toast for breakfast, and you grew into --</s>MCCARTHY: Captivating reading, isn't it?</s>SAMBOLIN: Yes. No, but you grew into someone who likes to travel alone. You describe yourself as a solitary person. But on your travels, there were some questions you were trying to answer, a lot of issues from your past. One of them, how do two people come together, perhaps? So, you got married last summer.</s>MCCARTHY: I did, yes.</s>SAMBOLIN: Did you find the answer?</s>MCCARTHY: Well, the whole book is really a question of trying -- taking that inward journey of like how do two people, how do people connect, how do we form intimacy? How do we commit? How do we form partnership? And I play that out by traveling the world. I mean, I answer questions. Some people go to therapy and some people have chats over coffee. I find the answers to my questions when I go far from home, when the boot hits the ground, you know? So I asked that question and found out the answers as I was traveling the world. So, really, it's more of an internal journey than played out on Kilimanjaro or down the Amazon. That kind of thing.</s>SAMBOLIN: But there were some serious questions that you were dealing with, some serious issues.</s>MCCARTHY: Yes. Once in awhile -- I was leaving to go to the Patagonia to write a story for magazine and we just decided to get married and I was feeling very lovey dovey, the way you do when you just decide that things like that. It's really sad to be leaving, but on another part of me, I was absolutely thrilled to be going alone. And I couldn't reconcile those two aspects of myself. That need for solitude and my own thing and the need and the yearning to be together, you know, with someone else. And so, I just -- that paradox was difficult to me to comprehend in myself. So, that's what I try to address in the book.</s>SAMBOLIN: And so how did -- what was your awakening there?</s>MCCARTHY: I suppose I -- the event of the book is really whenever I come back from the trip, I'm a better version of myself, you know? And I have more access to, I suppose, my love, you know? And if I bring home a better version of me, then that's a good thing.</s>SAMBOLIN: So, you've likened solo travel to infidelity.</s>MCCARTHY: I do think that.</s>SAMBOLIN: I need you to explain that one.</s>MCCARTHY: No, I do think that because when you travel alone, particularly, I don't mean vacation to a wonderful spot -- I just mean going out into the world alone, I think you're very -- it's a very private experience between you and whatever you encounter in the world. And when you come back, you have is really stories. You can't communicate that, te essence of that experience that happens to you when you're out alone in the world. So, it is leaving behind everything that you know at home and going out for a very private experience. You know, you can't really communicate that.</s>SAMBOLIN: Do you travel with your wife and kids now?</s>MCCARTHY: I do. Yes, they make me.</s>MCCARTHY: No, I loved it. I took my son to the Sahara for a story, my daughter to Tahiti, my wife, we just went -- you know, we go to Paris.</s>SAMBOLIN: And we have beautiful pictures of you when you got married which is very nice also.</s>MCCARTHY: Yes. It finally happened. Yes.</s>SAMBOLIN: Good luck to you, Andrew. It's really nice to have you with us this morning. Andrew McCarthy, the book, "The Longest Way Home: One Man's Global Quest For The Courage To Settle Down." Thank you for being with us. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. Are we going to John? Which one are we doing? Do we want to --