: About Me

ABOUT ME

I find it difficult to write about me

The most difficult obstacle I have had to overcome after I had decided to try and join Helium.com, was not the normal sense of self-doubt a beginning author usually suffers from like: Will they like what I write?

Frankly, I didn't give a dam.

I like what I write; that is the reason I want to share it with others.

But: what stopped me so long, then?

It took me quite a while to find what the matter with me was: I was afraid of succeeding!

All my working life I was a performing artist, from age 18 till age 85, feeding on applause.

Yes, I was lucky, they liked me and I did get lots of applause.

That made me a self-assured performer.

Call me opinionated.

It is no longer important to me.

After my greatest fan died, my wife, the mother of my children, I lost the plot.

This time last year I nearly died.

One day one of my students came to my hospital bed.

It was not quite evident to me that she had travelled half the world to say goodbye to me.

She thanked me for what I had taught her, now a famous performer herself and proud mother of performers, just like you, Maestro!

That was the turning point, even though I knew then that I had begun my last fifteen minutes.

But I told her that I had so much more to tell her.

So we started talking till deep into the night, me, on my deathbed, and she, fighting her farewell tears.

The upshot is that the next morning all the doctors told me that I had pulled through, miraculously.

I knew, it was no miracle, it was my student who kept me alive, for she needed to know so much more and would I not tell her what this and why that and how t'other

And now, at nearly age 93 I notice I get quite sure of myself

Aren't there others who want to know too?

I do have a lot to tell, all inventions and stories of course, but all based on my personal experience.

When you live a long time, you pick up quite a few tricks on the way down, don't you?

-

My passion is ...

If this is old age I'll have it twice over, please!

I know too much about ...

everything and nothing...

My parents always told me ...

to be best friends with myself first

My childhood ambition ...

was to be emperor of the world

My favorite memory ...

my grandmother asking me if she still could call me Lalli if I were the Emperor

Why I write ...

mainly to test if my point of view is valid to others as well

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

from touiletpaper covers to the Bible and anything beyond and in betweenween

My first job ...

elephant poop scooper in a circus

My best moment ...

my wife telling me that I sang with my body: I was an aerealist.

My inspiration ...

my wife, accompanying me on the piano while I jumped from rafter to hoops and back.

Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: On the lighter side

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LIAR’S LAMENT I know: In all I write and say I bend the truth. I see So far she always lies beyond my reach. I find It is my fear that stops me trust reality, Her face, So stern and threatening, so ugly leering At my Hope to find my peace in her horrendous purity!  Will I One day find strength to speak my mind Without The surety that candour hurts. Oh woe is me! -

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• Helium Charter Member