Shrine to Timothy Leary
May 31, 1996 at 1:00 p.m.
(You need Shockwave
to see this.)
May 31, 1996 at 1:00 p.m.
(You need Shockwave
to see this.)
-- The Moody Blues, "Legend of a Mind" (Ray Thomas)
-- The Who, "My Generation" (Pete Townshend)
-- The Dave Matthews Band, "Tripping Billies" (D. Matthews)
-- The Beatles, "Come Together" (Lennon/McCartney)
Timothy Leary left the meat world today at 12:45 a.m. His Web site and others that feature him, along with his books, CDs, and collaborations with others, are his epitaph and cyber-gravestone marker. He gave everyone he left behind a new way of thinking about death. A true hero, world shaker, psychedelic ranger, cosmic rogue, and lovable old Irish gent, he did not do any of the absurd things he and his friends said he might do, such as having his head frozen, or committing suicide "live" on the Web; antics that now seem carefully crafted to make us all amused by his passing. He introduced us to a new way of looking at death, perhaps in a way that the human race never has before. And the best summation of this new way of looking at death is by John Perry Barlow, friend, EFF founder, Grateful Dead lyricist, and fellow traveler in the void, in an email to his friends:
"... he died, without pretending that he was 'really going to get well any day now,' without permitting himself to become a ghoulish and futile medical experiment, without contributing to the stupefying mass denial that causes almost 80% of America's health care dollars to be blown on the last six months of life... He died unashamed and having, as usual, a great time."
The web will probably soon be flooded with anecdotes about Tim. My favorite is when I visited his place in Beverly Hills last year. I arrived at about 11 p.m., the starting time for a rumored party, and I was the first to show up. I found a note on the unlocked front door that read, "Come in. Tim is taking a nap. Party at 11."
