Let's Go Ted

Photography by Candy Heaphy

As my car flew by in the dark on my way to Amherst one night, I saw purple light. Not wanting a ticket, I turned to see how close the police were—and found no car. Yet the light reappeared weekly at a certain spot. As I was returning home one Sunday morning, green light moved on my dashboard, then on another day, the sun and the sky turned pink. I felt naturalness and comfort, without needing an interpretation, and appreciated the subtlety with an unassuming thought: I must be seeing the invisible light spectrum.*

Yet, thinking there might in fact be something wrong with my eyes, I made an appointment with ophthalmologist Dr. Ted Ingis, who, after completing my exam, told me my eyes were fine.

Longmeadow Street divides around the town green from Birnie Road to the library. I lived on Birnie, and learned that Ted lived on the back side of the green on the day I noticed him in the late afternoon—walking, although striding would be a better word, toward the library—and by his speed, I guessed to the Springfield line. He was lean and strong, with pumping legs drawing him forward, as bent arms and hands holding weights, swung upward in a dynamic rhythm—left, right, left, right.

Twenty-one years later, after I had begun my house marathon,* I remembered Ted rapidly coming around the corner and stretching down Longmeadow Street. I was walking fast inside my home, and one day as I started, I said in an exuberant voice, "Let’s go, Ted,"—and it stuck.

My realization is, "We are energy living within energy; we can link across time and space to other energy—finding support, expansion, and even … joy."

*A Flower for God
* “House Marathon”