Ha! Got to post what my publisher just tweeted. First time ever I get to share a meaningful picture quote by……… myself. And in case you’re wondering, I’m chuckling happily while I’m hitting “enter”.
1st Quote
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Category Archives: Inspiration
Nothing Held Back
How I loved this job! Coaching performers, keeping them safe during the show, being a stage hand and stage manager underwater in one of the most visionary projects of all time. The best times were when I could prepare performers for their aquatic environment. I loved seeing them work during our training sessions. Their focus, dedication and support for each other were second to none.
My four years of being part of the “The House of Dancing Water” show family in Macau were life lived to the fullest. All in. Nothing held back. Steep learning curves. It was heaven and hell, Jekyll and Hyde, utter happiness and despair. I looked into the abyss and at the same time was mesmerised by the beauty, passion, and creativity all around me. Blood and tears, utter commitment, corporate politics, friendship, integrity, growth, dreams coming true (sometimes shattered), an abundance of hugs and kisses, standing ovations, and the overall emotional intensity of an earthquake magnitude 8 on the Richter Scale.
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An Homage to Books, Cats, and Matt Haig
For as long as I can remember I’ve devoured books of almost all genres. I still easily read three a week, taking every chance I get to immerse myself in someone else’s thoughts and imagination.
Recently, through writing my own first book ‘Paralian’ I’ve redoubled my efforts and have even caught myself reading whilst walking home from the bus stop. If it’s a good read, something resounding deeply within, I seem to be incapable to set those precious pages aside – and be it just for a few minutes. Even more so, I love those days when I can do nothing else but wiggle into the large cushions of our comfy couch, book in hand, Nacho and Pushka, our fluffy fur balls, purring on either side of me.
One writer who has managed to charm me more than most is Matt Haig. I love his fine sense of humour, his compassion, and sensitive celebration of life. In all he has been through I recognise a kindred spirit. Living through tremendous pain and struggle heightens our sense of how magical and meaningful our brief, meaningless existence really is. Storytelling in all forms and shapes, listening to others’ and sharing our own, being an essential part of this magic…
“I loved external narratives for the hope they offered. Films. TV dramas. And most of all, books. They were, in and of themselves, reasons to stay alive. Every book written is the product of a human mind in a particular state. Add all the books together and you get the end sum of humanity. Every time I read a great book I felt I was reading a kind of map, a treasure map, and the treasure I was being directed to was in actual fact myself. But each map was incomplete, and I would only locate the treasure if I read all the books, and so the process of finding my best self was an endless quest…”
(From Matt Haig’s new book ‘Reasons To Stay Alive’)
How beautiful, and how profoundly true. Thinking ahead to the months and years to come, I dream my books will add to the magic. ‘Paralian’ is a beginning. I hope it carries the inner strength to, at some point in time, be a treasure map for someone out there as well…
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Independence
My dad always highlighted the importance of independence. His version of it was to amass as many savings as possible, thus being financially secure and free to move or buy at a moment’s notice.
Years later, during art school in Zurich, one of my professors pointed out how true independence can only be achieved by owning less instead of more. “Keep your standard of living as low as possible while still enjoying life to the fullest. Keep your possessions few or they will end up owning you. You’ll be tied to one spot.” His sentiment echoes in my heart to this day. It was advice much closer to my own heart.
Over the years, I began living accordingly, only holding on to few memorabilia… favourite books, gifts, small collectors items I picked up around the globe, notes and photographs transporting me back to meaningful moments…. all of these items easily fitting into a couple of boxes.
In 2005, I moved to a Maldivian island where I lived and worked for four years. Assorted wildlife scrambling up and down my bathroom tree. Coconuts falling from up high and slamming into the corrugated iron roof of my humble abode during all hours of the day and night. A comfy mattress, a handful of books, and a few square meters of privacy. I loved the material simplicity of my existence on that tiny pile of sand seemingly floating amidst oceanic hues of turquoise.
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The Danish Girl And Me
Have you seen “The Danish Girl”? Go see it!
I loved the sensitivity, the subtleness, the clarity, the not-so-in-your-face way of it. Never have I seen a transgender person portrayed with more love, sensitivity, and acceptance. “The Danish Girl” makes you really FEEL what it is like to be trapped in the wrong body. There was nothing extreme, nothing overly colourful, no over-obvious wow-effects, no capitalizing on the exoticness of it all… and yet, the movie gripped me through its profound humanity and through allowing me to understand the crushing extent of loneliness, lost-ness, and pain Lily was going through.
It was truly truly amazing! Beautiful.
I see myself so much in that movie. And I love how Lily was accepted as who she is by her closest friends. Just as I have always been accepted as who I am by those closest to me. Lily’s friends were there for her and treasured her the way she was. But like I did, Lily needed to find a way to live life out in the open, to be perceived on a daily basis as who she really was, and to get rid of a body that wasn’t hers. After her second operation, at the brink of death, she said with the most beautiful, heartfelt smile what I had felt too after my second operation: “Now I am finally, truly myself.” You could see it was worth it, even if it might mean she had to die that very instant.
With tears of happiness in my eyes, I remembered how terrified I had been of dying while still stranded in the wrong body. Nothing had felt more horrifying than to end up being buried in a body not my own. To be remembered with a tombstone, saying, “Miss Stefanie Klenk, beloved daughter of…”. I had hoped all along I would make it to the other side, so I could at least die happily in the knowledge of being buried as who I really was, always had been: “Mr. Liam Klenk, beloved son and husband of…”.
I think, most profoundly, “The Danish Girl” shows just how important it is to transgender individuals to be able to live life like everyone else. Lily’s happiness to be able to get a simple job as a perfume sales lady with a group of other women was heartbreaking.
See, the truth is, even though people like to think of us as exotic creatures, the majority of us aren’t colourful butterflies. We are just people who have been dealt a very screwed up deck of cards. And there are so many of us out there. We are everywhere, and always have been. Always will be.
I hope I’ll find a way to become a strong advocate and fighter for transgender people on a global scale. But when I do, I want to be there for others in the admirably sensitive way in which the movie “The Danish Girl” presents itself. Subtle, yet very powerful, clear, and very very personal.
I am glad we live now, in a world where people like Lily and I are not being locked up, subjected to radiation “treatments”, electroshock “treatments”, or killed anymore – at least most of the time that is, depending on where you live. Many trans people still can’t afford to come out in great style or even begin steps to become whole, because in the countries or areas they live in they’d be shot or beaten to death in an instant.
But still, we now live in a world where many people who had the good fortune of being born in the right body are at least beginning to understand a tiny little bit that being a trans man or woman means just the same as being a man or woman like everyone else out there. It’s this INCLUSIVENESS I want to highlight most of all. Not any kind of exclusiveness.
Plus, I want to help make clear to any of my contemporaries who are afraid, just how important it is to be yourself. How important it is to never let yourself be defined by only one element of your existence. You’re the sum of your experiences. You’re the soul within. Never let anyone tell you different or tell you who you are supposed to be. You know best who you are!
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The Moment
Have you ever read “The Hours” or seen the movie? It’s one of my all-time favorites, making me cry — with sadness as much as happiness — every time.
One scene in particular always stays with me:
In a very intimate moment towards the end of the movie, Clarissa says to her daughter, ”I remember one morning getting up at dawn, there was such a sense of possibility. You know, that feeling? And I remember thinking to myself: So, this is the beginning of happiness. This is where it starts. And of course there will always be more. It never occurred to me it wasn’t the beginning. It was happiness. It was the moment. Right then.”
As I look out the window of our little eagle’s nest overlooking the beautiful city of Zurich I breathe in deeply. My wife is working today. We had a cozy, slow breakfast together. She just left a few minutes ago and I already miss her with every fiber of my being.
Pushka, our fluffy Persian, is looking out of the open window, her eyes sparkling, seeing snow for the very first time.
Our other cat, Nacho, is sitting on his cat tree, every so often pawing the window pane, trying to catch a stray flake through the glass.
And on the table behind me, the final typeset of my book is waiting for me. The next three days will be busy… reading through 450 pages once more to check if all final corrections I made a few weeks ago have been implemented. I’m looking forward to finding that last hidden typo…
It keeps snowing. I’ll start soon. Just a few more minutes of gazing out the window…
Clarissa was right. It is the moment. Right now.
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The Legacy of Adoption
A press release from Literally PR concerning my memoirs ‘Paralian’ (launching soon!). This release focussing on the adoption side of things…
![[image]](http://collateral.prmax.co.uk/collateral/92316.jpg "66749-1.jpg")
Press Release:
The Legacy of Adoption
Paralian: Not Just Transgender
London, United Kingdom, Thursday 14thJanuary 2016: Liam Klenk’s innovative memoir, Paralian, will initially strike most as a transgender man’s story despite the title strapline ‘notjusttransgender’. In reality, there are many elements within Liam’s life that are equally as defining as being a transgender man. Just as important to his identity in 2016 was the late revelation, in 1992, that he had been adopted at just five months.
Conventional wisdom suggests that adopted children should be made aware of their biological parents as soon as possible but Liam did not find out he was adopted until the age of 21, and then it was because of legal papers associated with a rather complicated marriage and divorce. He explains in his memoir, due for release by Matador on May 28th 2016:
In Zurich once again…
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“There’s such a lot of world to see…”
I am sitting at home on the couch with my two cats today, relaxing, enjoying the surprisingly warm rays of winter-sunshine and marvelling at the mighty alps spanning the horizon. At the same time, my mind is wandering and I am amazed by the rich life I’ve been privileged to lead so far. There were so many moments filling me with enough energy and sunshine to last a lifetime.
Most of those moments were directly related to people. Like this one right here, in the Maldives in 2009. The goodbye dinner with the Maldivian boat crews on the evening before my departure holds a special place in my heart. For four years we had spent almost every day together on the local dhonis. All of them had humbly shared their wisdom of the sea, never asking anything in return.
On this last evening together we laughed, enjoyed freshly caught Tuna and sang traditional Maldivian songs. The guys told anecdotes about my clumsiness and the many resulting embarrassing moments over the years which they remembered in all-too-fine a detail… like the one time I was taking a dump in the boat’s head and flushed, forgetting that some of my divers were still surfacing, my turds floating past them like a school of stinky sea cucumbers.
As the evening drew on, everyone had a good word, a kind smile, a hand on my shoulder. No matter how different our culture, religions, and backgrounds might have been, we always respected and appreciated each other. I miss them all. All of these soft-spoken, courageous men have taught me about kindness and loyalty amongst other things and by doing so have enriched my life immensely. It’s been a privilege to work with each and every one of them.
I’m longing to get back out there and venture much farther still. While I reminisce, a song comes up and here I am, humming Frank Sinatra’s Moon River, “Two drifters, off to see the world. There’s such a lot of world to see…”
There sure is. No doubt my wife and I will be on the road again in the years to come. Sometimes only for a few days, sometimes weeks, sometimes even for a few months. Who knows. We’ll see. All I am sure of is I want to stay as open as possible to new adventures, people, and possibilities.
#Paralian #LiamKlenk #notjusttrans #odyssey #lifejourney #memoir #humanist #passionatetraveller
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Enjoy the Bubbles!
Whether in the ocean or just in your glass of champagne, enjoy the bubbles and celebrate a blissful holiday season!
Paralian, Santa and a Manta are wishing you a Merry Christmas!
#Paralian #LiamKlenk #notjusttrans #merrychristmas #underwaterbliss
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Cat Hairs and Words
The last two weeks have been very busy for my two cats and me. Each day after my day job, we worked hard on proofreading ‘Paralian’ together one final time. While Pushka, the Persian, distributed as many hairs to my manuscript as she could, I marked the odd spelling mistake in red, trying to get through at least thirty pages each day.
Every now and then, nearing midnight, Nacho would climb down from his high perch on the cat tree. He would plant his little ginger butt firmly on the manuscript, as if to say, “Time to relax. You’ve worked enough for one day.”
As of yesterday, 450 pages plus 1’000 cat hairs are on their way to my publisher in the UK.
As soon as the production team have made all final corrections, printing will commence!
Liam Klenk 