Everything shimmering and golden — read Laurie Anderson’s beautiful public words for Lou Reed

Laurie Anderson’s beautiful obituary for her late husband and partner, Lou Reed.

Rod Meade Sperry31 October 2013

Laurie Anderson – musical, visual, spoken-word artist extraordinaire in her own right – was famously married to Lou Reed. Now, after Reed’s passing, followers of either or both of this pair of one-of-a-kinds have to wonder how she’s doing.

Loving, gracious, and grateful in tone, her obituary for Reed, as published in the East Hampton Star and more broadly seen now on Stereogum, Pitchfork, and others, seems to say a lot.

To our neighbors:

What a beautiful fall! Everything shimmering and golden and all that incredible soft light. Water surrounding us.

Lou and I have spent a lot of time here in the past few years, and even though we’re city people this is our spiritual home.

Last week I promised Lou to get him out of the hospital and come home to Springs. And we made it!

Lou was a tai chi master and spent his last days here being happy and dazzled by the beauty and power and softness of nature. He died on Sunday morning looking at the trees and doing the famous 21 form of tai chi with just his musician hands moving through the air.

Lou was a prince and a fighter and I know his songs of the pain and beauty in the world will fill many people with the incredible joy he felt for life. Long live the beauty that comes down and through and onto all of us.

— Laurie Anderson
his loving wife and eternal friend

Rod Meade Sperry

Rod Meade Sperry

Rod Meade Sperry is the editor of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Guide (published by Lion’s Roar), and the book A Beginner’s Guide to Meditation: Practical Advice and Inspiration from Contemporary Buddhist Teachers. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with his partner and their tiny pup, Sid.