04.18.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:00 am by Josh
“Let’s pretend that once upon a time people were actually cool with each other. There were no rich or poor. There was no crime. War had not been invented. Property was as yet only loosely defined and the idea that people might presume to own the earth itself was unheard of, even incomprehensible.” -Len 10/28/07 Stories from Beyond the Box
Leonard James Harrison, 63, passed away at San Francisco General Hospital on April 6, 2009 after a short battle with cancer. Born on Aug. 18, 1945, Len grew up in Walnut Creek and lived around the Bay Area throughout his life. His numerous careers included working as an instructional designer, a web developer, a filmmaker, and an author, among others. He led a life that brought him on countless adventures and allowed him to help many people along the way. A practicing Buddhist, he said shortly before death that he hoped to be reincarnated somewhere in South America so that he could join in the next revolution. Len will be sorely missed by his mother Mae, his brother Harland, his son Josh, and Liz, the mother of his son. And of course, the thousands of friends he made throughout this lifetime. A memorial service will be held in San Francisco during Memorial Day Weekend.
Viva la revolucion!
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04.15.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:21 am by Josh
Len passed away at San Francisco General Hospital after a short battle with cancer. This was my father’s blog, which he started while I was being held in Dublin. He only wrote one entry, but I found it inspiring and thought you might as well.
A memorial service for Len has been tentatively scheduled for May 23, 2009 in Delores Park. This site will be updated with more details shortly.
I also plan to post some of Len’s writings and media work here as a sort of archive of a small slice of the many contributions my father made in his 63 years on the planet.
You will be missed, but it was time for you take the journey to the next incarnation.
I love you dad,
Josh
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03.13.07
Posted in Manifesto at 3:47 pm by len
I’ve spent 62 years on this planet working toward what seems so obvious, yet remains so elusive: a world based upon the values I was taught as child. I was told these values were embodied by my government, that they were the values of my country, the United States of America, which I was also told was the greatest country on earth, the land of equality and opportunity, the land of the free, and the home of the brave, with liberty and justice for all.
By the time I was twenty, I had internalized these values and seen the men who’d come to stand for many of them, at least for me, killed, one after the other. Martin, Malcolm, John, and Bobby, all gunned down. Then the war amped up and the Beatles crossed the pond with “I want to hold your hand” and the whole world changed, for both better and worse. At that point I had been drafted for the sake of a war whose duplicities were known to me. I chose not to go. I chose not to make an issue of it with the US government. In spite of my idealism, I could never grant them that legitimacy. Even then I knew the difference between system and society. Read the rest of this entry »
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