Reply To: The Searcher: What is Cal doing in Ireland?
I agree with you all– Cal was trying to find himself; he no longer had a clear picture, and was full of self-doubt. He was afraid that his friends might see the cracks in him. I think he also feared that they might pity him, see how shattered he was, and I think he would have hated that. It would have exposed his vulnerabilities and perhaps lessened him in their eyes. He feels the failure of his marriage acutely; he feels he’s failed not only his wife, but his daughter, by being the person he felt it was right for him to be, and that rocked his self-concept. And professionally, to be potentially losing his moral compass was intolerable; whoever he had become in that life was not who he wanted to be. So he starts over, in a “simple” place, with simple demands and goals, and hopes that will be enough and will heal him. What he finds, of course, is anything but simple, but it ends up healing him anyway, as he finds a life that he can be proud of living after all.
