George Harrison: Distinguished-Like

I never met George Harrison, but he taught me a lot of what I know about living. The lyrics to his songs are intelligent, moving, critical, loving. I’m not the type of person to be obsessed with a celebrity, and I hate the way this country idolizes them. There was just something about George that was sincere.

Since I picked out my first Beatles album (The Magical Mystery Tour) at Costco in fourth grade I have loved George Harrison. After studying his life a little more I realized that this man was more than just an amazing writer and a fabulous guitar player. This was a man who had figured out how to live life and be happy. What I figured out with some help from George was that much of being happy in life has to do with not being afraid of death. What is the point of being scared of something you can’t see, touch, or even know about without experiencing?

He knew that the important things in life are your family, your friends, the things you believe in, and your principles, not trends, not things that other people tell you are important. One of my favorite quotes from George is one that was printed in “Rolling Stone Magazine” after he died. “I’m not much of a career person,” he said, “I’m more of a gardener.” That said to me that he knew that his fame wasn’t that important in the long run of things. What was important is that he enjoyed living, he enjoyed his wife and son, he enjoyed working in his garden, and so that’s what he did. I cut this quote out of the magazine and taped it to my wall. I saw it everyday and it told me that I need to do what I love. Maybe I’d make the most money working in some cube, but if being a gardener makes me happy, that’s what I’ll do.

George saw the horrible hypocrisies in the world and hated them. Instead of just being angry he did something about it. One of the most notable was the Concert for Bangladesh. It is immortalized in the song “Bangladesh.”

“My friend came to me with sadness in his eyes / he told me that he wanted help before his country dies / although I could not feel the pain I knew I had to try / now I’m asking all of you to help us save some lives.”

Although this song wasn’t the only inspiration for me, the spirit of activism has been important in my life. There are many homeless people in Portland, so my family volunteered to feed them at the church I grew up in. When I couldn’t vote I registered people who could.

The only time I can remember crying in the morning is when I woke up to hear the morning news report that George Harrison had died of lung cancer. I had known he was sick, but everyone said he’d get better. One of my mothers cousins whom we were very close to had died of lung cancer the year before, so seeing another one of my heroes succumb to the disease was almost as painful, almost like reliving the same situation. To most people it was the death of a Beatle. The death of any hope of a “reunion.” To me it was the death of someone I looked up to as an incredible model of how to live one’s life.


"George was a giant, a great, great soul with all the humanity, all the wit and humor, all the wisdom the spirituality, the common sense of a man and compassion for people. He inspired love and had the strength of a hundred men. He was like the sun, the flowers, and the moon, and we will miss him enormously. The world is a profoundly emptier place without him." –Bob Dylan