Handshake #26 - Can you have a handshake with your father? In Phoenix with Alan Clemens

After having the opportunity to perform a handshake with my mom back in Alaska, it only made sense to follow up and create a handshake with my father. This time the location was in Phoenix, Arizona, as I'm in transit to go to Detroit for training to work on another cruise ship for Park West Gallery. Earlier on my website, I created a video that tells the story of one of my father's ongoing life projects. That is of the "Six Word Story." This is a project where my father has been writing daily emails formulating a theme and telling a story on life and lessons and having a six-word message to go along with it and sharing them with me every day almost for the past decade of my life and more.

Who is Alan Clemens?

My father is originally from Jamestown, North Dakota and the reason I was born in Alaska is that he was drafted into the U.S. Military towards the end of the Vietnam War. Most of his professional working life was a sports coach for every sport and a gym and math teacher at the middle and high school levels. My father amazes me with his contribution to his community in the Eagle River/Chugiak area with his service in the church, substitute teaching at Chugiak High School, his devotion to his marriage with my stepmother Jackie and his continual involvement with being a prison mentor for inmates in the Alaska penal system. Many of the handshakes I have done up until this point aren't planned out when I will do them, and this handshake I did with my father wasn't planned. As I was in the car with my dad and stepmother to the airport, I told them that I wanted to film a handshake once we got to the airport, and that is what we did. I love how my father gives a funny look at the begging of the video as I'm introducing the handshake, and he is standing holding my suitcase, wondering what will happen. 

I encourage you to read my father's six-word story blog here, where he posts his thoughts on life, being a father, and his perspectives in the format that Ernest Hemmingway popularized; however, no evidence can sustain this claim). To read messages on spirituality, a father's perspective on having a son, and words of wisdom, check out his writing here. 

To contact Alan Clemens, you can reach him at his email address