Location: Home > Travel Tips > Andrew McCarthy Speaks on the Transformational Power of Travel
Andrew McCarthy Speaks on the Transformational Power of Travel
June 7, 2012 by Susan Foster 5 Comments
Andrew McCarthy drew a large crowd last April at The Boston Globe Travel Show (which is, incidentally, the largest newspaper sponsored travel show in the US). McCarthy, an actor best known for his appearance in St. Elmos Fire, Pretty in Pink, and Less Than Zero as one of the Brat Pack, has recently taken up travel writing. He is a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler Magazine and has twice been awarded Travel Journalist of the Year from the Society of American Travel Writers.
At the travel show, McCarthy spoke about the transformative power of travel. Travel changed my lifewho I was and how I saw myself, even when I wasnt traveling, McCarthy avowed. He talked about walking across the Camino Real (the California Mission Trail), feeling lonely and miserable. He hit bottom and wanted to go home. The next day he realized that fear had run his life, and he felt like himself for the first time. He has discovered in his travels that he is more at home in himself the farther he gets from home.
He reported that 30% of Americans have passports, but only half ever use them, and then to travel to Mexico and Canada. Americans are a fearful people, he asserted, but travel obliterates fear. He was terrified to travel to Sudanbut didnt want to be deterred by fear. Kids have no fear, he noted. He took his eight year old son to the Sahara, even though people thought he was crazy to do so, and it turned out well. He believes that when you travel somewhere with small children, its a way of saying I trust you, and people respond favorably to that.
McCarthy prefers to travel alone because when hes lonely hes more apt to reach out for help, which opens him up. He makes connections with people more often. It is the interactions with people that he remembers about traveling. You break through barriers and connect, he said. When you become engaged and turn your attention out, you become alive. Travel is an easy way to do that.
McCarthy showed a video of himself driving around Ireland on a quest for the magic roada road that defies gravity, where a car left in neutral goes uphill. The video was a great illustration of how McCarthy sees travel as an opportunity to reach out to others. In it, he asks numerous people, young an old alike, for directions to the magic road. Each has a different idea of where it is and how to get there, sending him helter-skelter across the Irish countryside. After being told to take a righthe cant miss ithe finds himself at a few six-way intersections all marked in Gaelic. Confused and lost, he decides its time to get a cup of tea. Refreshed, he sets out again undeterred, asking directions of everyone he passes. Eventually he finds the magic road, as his car coasts uphill for a thrilling moment.
But it is apparent that for McCarthy, the memorable part of his travel experience was not reaching his destination but rather relating to people along the way. He remarked about one elderly man he spoke with who had a thick Irish brogue, I had no idea what he was saying, but it sure was fun talking with him!
Travel is a romantic experience, according to McCarthy. You have to love where you travel, he stated. Stepping out and entering a new place is romantic. But travel is not always pretty, glamorous, or fun, he added. It can be a jarring experience, encountering peoples suffering or deplorable living conditions.
For McCarthy, writing taps into his excitement and engagement in the world. Even though travel writing wouldnt seem to be a lucrative endeavor, McCarthy reports that his passions have always rewarded him thirty fold. McCarthy got his start when Anthony Bourdain of No Reservations suggested that he write a travel article. McCarthy initially demurred but gave it a try, and Bourdain liked his work. McCarthy has since written a multitude of articles in such magazines as The Atlantic, Travel + Leisure, and Bon Appetit.
When hes interviewing someone for an article (in which he too is a character), he doesnt pull out a notebook. Instead he runs to the bathroom periodically to take notes (which may give rise to some interesting speculations). I try to be a traveling fool, he proclaimed. God takes care of babies and fools.
For McCarthy, the world is a wondrous place. He affirmed that children naturally have wonder but that adults long for it too. He closed with words that seem unquestionably true: We travel to feel wonder, to tap into it no matter how old we are. I think thats why we travel, to get that wonder.
