Where I’m From

Me with a newborn lamb, circa 1975

I was ashamed about where I came from — rural Maine — for years, and I wasted a lot of time and energy trying to conceal my origins or exploiting them for comic effect. In one way, I guess I’m still exploiting my origins, by writing about them. Although with much more love than shame.

Note: The photo used to illustrate the essay as published on Ozy is not of me. We raised sheep, not crops, and the landscape is so not central coastal Maine. When the Bangor Daily News picked up my essay, the editor asked for some photos to accompany it — those are of me, then and now.