Lars Clausen Thanksgiving Transcript

November 25, 2007

Announcer: Now, back to Dr. Kent and friends.

Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to Sound Authors Radio. It’s the day after Thanksgiving, we’re full, we’re happy. The next guest is Lars Clausen, the winner of the Book of the Year Award, Benjamin Franklin Award and an IPPY Award from the Independent Publishers Association. The book is called Straight into Gay America and his former book is called One Wheel, Many Spokes. We’d love to chat with him about Thanksgiving.Welcome, Lars.

Lars Clausen: Hi, Kent. Thank you for having me.

Kent: What is Thanksgiving like this year for you and your family?

Lars: Actually in a few hours, I’m going to start driving down from Chelan, Washington where I live down to Southern California to be with my side of the family. For me, this year I’ve had some just great breakthroughs with my family and I’m looking forward to celebrating the lives of my parents.

Kent: You talk about your family in both of your books, what is the importance of family on your great adventures. What do they mean to you in your crazy and great adventures?

Lars: Well, when I uni-cycled through all 50 states and got that Guinness Record, my wife was driving this ancient motor home that kept breaking down and the kids five and seven at that time along with me. What we created out of that experience was a story that we will always remember. Both the heartaches and the joys of half a year on the road together, kids doing homework at night in the motor home, me out uni-cycling 50 or 100 miles a day.We have a story that we take with us and it’s something we talk about regularly and remember. When I was on the Straight into Gay America ride, I was away from my family for five weeks, and I think that really deepen our appreciation of each other. For me, a lot of life is about creating good stories that enliven every day of our lives. So I’m really thankful for these adventures that have made our family a stronger group.

Kent: You used to be a Lutheran pastor and you’re still are in a way, you don’t have a call. What does Thanksgiving mean to you in I guess a religious way?

Lars: I was just thinking about that because I’m not going to preach a Thanksgiving sermon this year like I used to. But I remember, I was always trying to get “out of the box” on Thanksgiving because our media is so full of the stereotypical perfect family imagery that comes across at Thanksgiving.The reality, I think for most of us, is that our experiences are different, even if they’re wonderful, they’re not stereotypical. For a lot of people this is the hardest time of the year, Thanksgiving and Christmas, because we feel like we don’t fit in.So in terms of spirituality, for me I was always remembering that our faith was about love for all people and not about fitting in, not about meeting the stereotype but love, caring, compassion, meeting us right where we are. I work real hard at that because this is a season that sure brings out the “put on your good image”, the “perfect family”.Life is that way for some people, but for the majority of us, there’s just a bunch of different pieces. I think our faith recognizes that and honors us in the midst of whatever we’ve going through. So that would have been my Thanksgiving sermon if I had preached.

Kent: Each major holiday that we have in this country, we always have to remember that there are people out there that don’t have their families and it’s actually one of the saddest days of the year.

Lars: Exactly. And for me, when we talk about faith, specifically the Christian tradition, you get Jesus who is the consummate outsider, the one that doesn’t fit in with all the standards and that’s the guy who comes and talks about love. If we can look at it in that way, boy, there’s enough love, enough care and kindness to share all the way around.

Kent: So what do you think we, as Americans, have to be thankful for?

Lars: We get to be part of this world. One of my favorite people that I ever listened to said: you know, the world’s 15 billion years old, 15 billion years old, and you are what the universe has come to right now.We get to live in this time, no matter what time it is. It’s amazing. Our hearts get to beat today; we don’t know how long that’s going to happen for. We have the entire universe to be thankful for, and the opportunity really to shape what it’s going to look like in the future.That’s kind of a big deal, for my daughter, it is cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving. For me, I love turkey, but…

Kent: What kind of cranberry sauce, the really smooth, sweet stuff?

Lars: You know what she likes? She likes the jelly stuff that comes out of a can. My mom makes this great homemade stuff, but Kari Anna wants the can.

Kent: My mother has a soft spot for the really nasty stuff with the ground up orange peels and cranberries.

Lars: That’s what my mom makes, yes.

Kent: Real great. Here’s a question for you. Into The Wild just came out by Jon Krakauer, and the novel was made into a movie and it looks like it will be very interesting. I read that book several years ago and it had the same impact on me that your first book did, One Wheel, Many Spokes but in a different way. What I’d like to ask you is, on Thanksgiving, young people often are really thankful for their lives, but they want to expand.They want to see something. They want to break boundaries to get through it. This fellow in “Into the Wild”, he decided to get rid of all of his identity and go out into the wild and do all of his adventures. Eventually, it caught up with him and he had some trouble.But I felt that when I was young and I wanted to resist and I ran away to the Middle East and tried to change the world. And you’ve done a similar thing, but in your book, what really moves me the first book is that you didn’t quite break with reality like I did. You were still there, you were with your family, you were in this land, you had a goal and a mission, but you still went into the wild, you’re still out there. How would you connect that to Thanksgiving this year?

Lars: Yes, gosh, that’s a great question, Kent. Thank you, I love that “Into the Wild” book as well and I really wanted him to make it in the story, and I think he did. He just ended up in a situation that didn’t work out for him at the end.For myself, stepping out of my expected role or my traditional role has always rewarded me. I haven’t always succeeded but taking a step into the unknown helps me to know myself better, it helps me to appreciate others better. As long as I stand in the standard role, I can count on everything being just the way I expect it, and surprises, they just fit in to that standard pattern. When I get vulnerable and I step outside of that role, the world opens up. So I think we’re particularly open to that when we’re young and the more we can practice that, the better.Practice in a way that if we succeed it’s awesome, and if we fail at that stepping out, we do so in a way that it’s survivable. Yes, I can live with that risk. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll take another one or I’ll step back. But living with risk–if you go back to Thanksgiving–gosh, it’s all about people taking a huge risk coming across the ocean, trying to settle a new land and making it, enough that they could have a meal that they could celebrate. So before the celebration comes, the stepping out and the risk and finding new territory, and at the end of it, sometimes we make it, sometimes we don’t but there’s that great squash to be cooked and celebrate it when we do.

Kent: What would be your advice to young–well, it could be your or old people–a lot of people that had been in their career for 30-40 years, they do crazy things because they have this opportunity after they retire or later in life to go out and do crazy things and explore the world. At the same time, kids that are done with college, they’re done with high school or run away from home, what’s your advice to people that want to experience something new and fresh?

Lars: I came out of the Lutheran tradition and one of the things that I love that that Dr. Luther say is that “We’re ultimately free” which means go for it, do anything we want. In his perspective, he said, “We’re also ultimately responsible”. That means, I matter as much as any other creature, any other thing in this planet, but every other thing and every other creature and every other human being on this planet matters just as much as me.So, out of a loser’s perspective–and I really agree with it–for so many comes out of living my freedom but also living my responsibility or my possibility of compassion for other people, caring about them and giving myself, my life in a way that helps other people live their freedom, too. If we can find a match like that, my gosh, amazing things happen. If you look at folks that lead really fulfilling lives, I think it’s this great combination of being free to live out our risks and our dreams and our hopes and finding a way to do it in ways that make other people’s lives better, too.

Kent: So have you found your freedom?

Lars: Some days, yes. Yes, I think that’s a process you get to play for your whole life. There are days when I feel absolutely free and I’m just so thankful I got to live. There are other days that I get in the rot and I wonder what happened. But to think I’m going to have it captured for now and forever, I guess, maybe I’m old enough to think that I appreciate them when they come and when they’re not there, I just start looking at my life again and thinking about and acting out what does it mean to make a life and my dreams again.

Kent: What are you thankful for today?

Lars: Me? Gosh, I’m so thankful I get to work in a job that’s fulfilling to me. I was just talking with some authors today, that’s my job is helping authors get websites and helping to share in their dreams. They work six to eight years in a book and I get to be part of that, when they bring it to the world, that’s huge. And my kids–last night, I was at my son’s soccer meeting, he has states championships coming up, and there were all these wonderful kids there that we’re getting ready for that. These days, yes, I’m right in the middle of my dream, very thankful.

Kent: Lars Clausen is the author of two books, “Straight into Gay America” and “One Wheel Many Spokes”. You can find both of those online, the first is at StraightIntoGayAmerica.com and the second is at OneWheel.org. Lars is also the founder of AmericanAuthor.com and you can call up and speak to him about your writing projects, he’s a great guy to talk to. That’s at AmericaAuthor.com.Thanks so much for being on the show today, Lars.