Category: Memoir Publisher: P. D. Publishing, Inc.
ISBN-10: 1933720077
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 90
Copyright: October, 2006
ISBN-13: 9781933720074
As a woman born in the body of a man, Norma wanted to scream, but she could not, for she had no voice. Finding her voice at last, she discovered she no longer had the need to scream.
Synopsis:
I am a transgender. I have lived a life of 72 years as a woman in the body of a man. Norma’s Voice is the story of that life.
This memoir begins before I existed. It covers both the profound agony and the wild comedy of living in a perpetual state of gender fluidity. The memoir specifically dwells on my early childhood, my marriage of 24 years to a wonderful woman, her death, the “death” of my male identity, and the final birth of my womanhood.
The memoir spends some time ruminating on existential matters, in a manner which illuminates the curious way a transgender person relates to self; to family; to men, women and all humanity; to God; and to the cosmos.
A theme runs throughout: The intense need for Norma to scream, and her inability to do so, because she had no voice. Hence the title. The memoir ends with Norma finding her voice at last, and in so doing, finds that she no longer is driven to scream.
Excerpt
Is this world comprehensible? If we lack comprehension, is it a matter of trying harder? Or are we confused actors upon a misty stage, forever denied the answers to the questions which come to our intellects? To be given the power to ask, and to be forever denied the answer: can a more demonic torment be imagined?
Perhaps.
For this child was born into a sexually binary society, yet does not fit that conscript. Our very language demands a terrible and final decision, and permits no exception. Let us call him “she”; let us call her “he.”
He seems to be a boy, but she is there:
In thin delicate wrists;
In softness of body;
In tenderness felt For little brave, weedy flowers
Poking through slum-city cracks
Seeking light;
As the child pokes through society’s cracks
Seeking light.
She is there:
In blades of grass;
In sunlight coming through the trees;
In the sound of wind;
In songs of birds;
In stars of the sky;
And in loving sorrow felt
For a dead cat
In a dirty city alley.
She is there.
Let us scream. But we cannot, for we have no voice.
A passionate and poignant memoir written by a woman whose life has been guided by the words: "I am here to learn how to love well." The book is a deep examination of relationships, family, motivation, and honoring of the Self.
