>>>Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 04:59:58 -0600
>>>To: Friends of Barlow 
>>>From: John Perry Barlow 
>>>Subject: Long Live Timothy Leary
>>>
>>>
>>>A couple of hours ago, at 12:45 am Beverly Hills time, my old friend and
>>>the corrupter of my youth Timothy Leary made good on his promise to "give
>>>death a better name or die trying." Willingly, peacefully, and
>>>unafraid, he
>>>headed off on his last trip.
>>>
>>>He spoke his last words a few hours before. On the phone to the mordant
>>>William S. Burroughs he said, "I hope that someday I'm as funny as
>>>you are."
>>>
>>>He didn't, as threatened, commit suicide on the Net. Or have his head cut
>>>off and frozen. Or engage in any other the other spectacles of departure I
>>>had dreaded. In the end, he surrounded himself with the angelic band of
>>>twenty-somethings who have been uploading him into the Web these last few
>>>months and drifted peacefully out of here.
>>>
>>>I was headed his way when he died. When I was with him earlier this month
>>>he said, "When I leave here, Barlow, I want your face to be one of
>>>the last
>>>things I see." I think that was one of the sweetest things anyone
>>>ever said
>>>to me, and I was trying to make it possible, but death proved itself once
>>>again to be bigger and faster than either of us. The phone just rang
>>>in the
>>>middle of this rainy Wyoming night, and now I'm here naked in the dark
>>>trying to think of something to follow him out with.
>>>
>>>Two years ago, Cynthia and I spent our last day together with Timmy. When
>>>she died the next day and it became so shockingly clear to both of us how
>>>strange this culture has become on the subject of the second commonest
>>>event in the world, how weirdly shameful is dying in America, we both
>>>thought it time to bring death out of the closet. I did so by
>>>grieving her,
>>>and continuing to grieve her, more publicly than is polite in a culture
>>>that claims for itself the ability to conquer and control everything.
>>>
>>>But Timmy beat me to the barricades. He flat died. And 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.
>>>
>>>A few weeks ago, the denizens of leary.com and I rented a phalanx of wheel
>>>chairs and rode them with him into the House of Blues on Sunset Strip, a
>>>place that likely had never seen fifteen people in wheel chairs before.
>>>After a truly merry time, we were headed back to his house and on the way
>>>came within a smile of Tim Leary's Last Bust.
>>>
>>>We cruising west on Sunset. And the sun was setting. The top was
>>>down on my
>>>metallic mauve rent-a-convertible. A couple of the web girls, Trudy and
>>>Camilla, were sitting on the trunk like psychedelic prom queens,
>>>shoop-de-booping to the funk station on the radio, volume at eleven. Both
>>>the girls were beautiful, Trudy like a character from Neuromancer, Camilla
>>>like a character from Botticelli. The air was sweet and soft as a negligee
>>>on our faces, and the light had that elegiac quality that makes people
>>>think LA might not be so bad after all.
>>>
>>>Timmy gave me a high five and grinned. "Life is good!" he shouted over the
>>>music. As I looked up to meet his raised hand, I saw in my rear view
>>>mirror, past the swaying torsos of the girls, the rotating reds of a real
>>>Beverly Hills cop.
>>>
>>>Of course we were in possession of several of those substances that we
>>>considered safe and effective but which this culture, in another of its
>>>dangerous madnesses, has declared lethal, probably to distract heat from
>>>its own deadly drugs of choice. Furthermore, I had only recently paid an
>>>astonishingly steep California fine for allowing a friend to stand up
>>>through the sunroof of a car I was driving.
>>>
>>>He pulled us over in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel. He looked like an
>>>Eagle Scout.
>>>
>>>"Officer," I said, nodding back at the still improperly seated girls, "I
>>>know what we were doing was wrong. But you see, my friend here is dying,
>>>and we're trying to show him a good time." Timmy, without saying anything,
>>>smiled sheepishly at the cop and nodded, caught in the act.
>>>
>>>He looked like hell but he sure looked happy.
>>>
>>>The officer gazed into Timmy's beatific skull-face and lost his starch.
>>>"Well," he said to the girls, "I'd be lying if I didn't say that
>>>looks like
>>>fun, but just because he's dying doesn't mean you should. Now get down in
>>>the seat and buckle up and I'll let you go." I felt like honest death had
>>>just made one of its first converts.
>>>
>>>In thirty years of following Tim Leary around, he's given me some
>>>wonderful
>>>and hair-raising moments. He has been father, anti-father,
>>>partner-in-crime, and devout fellow-worshipper of all that is female in
>>>this world. We loved each other, and shared more memories than I will ever
>>>relate. But I think the look he gave that cop is the memory I will cherish
>>>most.
>>>
>>>As usual he was "cocking snooks at authority," as Aldous Huxley once
>>>accused him. But he was doing it, also as usual, with wit. And with love.
>>>
>>>America managed to forgive Richard Nixon when he died. I hope they will
>>>extend the same amnesty to a real hero, Dr. Timothy Leary.
>>>
>>>
>>>Yrs,
>>>
>>>John Perry
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>****************************************************************
>>>John Perry Barlow, Cognitive Dissident
>>>Co-Founder, Electronic Frontier Foundation
>>>
>>>Home(stead) Page: http://www.eff.org/~barlow
>>>
>>>Message Service: 800/634-3542
>>>
>>>Barlow in Meatspace Today: Pinedale, Wyoming
>>>
>>>Coming soon to: Beverly Hills 6/2-3, Barcelona 6/2-6, Madrid 6/6-9, Across
>>>Europe 6/10-14, Stockholm 6/14-15, Lulea, Sweden 6/16-17, Pinedale,
>>>Wyoming
>>>6/18-23, Utah Deserts 6/23-?
>>>
>>>In Memoriam, Dr. Cynthia Horner, Jerry Garcia, and Timothy Leary
>>>
>>>*****************************************************************
>>>
>>>Move through transformation, out and in.
>>>What is the deepest loss that you have suffered?
>>>If drinking is bitter, change yourself to wine.
>>>
>>>                                             --Rilke