I Am Going To Ruin Your Day

Yoko Ono is almost 76 years old and has been to 80 cities in the past 5 years, installing her Imagine Peace Towers all over the world.

She donates heavily to charity.

She is soft-spoken and adamantly outspoken at the same time. When asked her opinion, she will honestly give it, politely but forthrightly.

She is forgiving.

She believes that peace is possible. This is more than just a mantra she clings to. Every public action of hers promotes peace in some way. One of her pieces, of which she has made many versions, is Play It By Trust, an all-white chess board with 32 white pieces. The idea is that, if you find a version you can actually play, once you get a few moves into the game, you find you can't go on because you don't recognize your pieces. It might not stymie Viswanathan Anand, but he's one in 6 billion.

But that is far from her only idea. One of her more simple ones is ONOCHORD -- "I love you," sent by a simple signal of ! !! !!! with a flashlight or a lighter or what have you.

She's a loving widow who believes that John Lennon had a message that is timeless. As the photo at the top of this post shows, Yoko wants everyone to remember that John was shot. She does it not to beat her own breast and pour ashes on her head in public, but to help those who have faced similar circumstances and raise public awareness about violence and murder.

And there is a Facebook group, Yoko Ono Should Have Died Instead of John Lennon. It isn't very large and there's only one topic, but the vitriol is powerful -- "For people who are against that Japanese slut" is the summary -- and the implications are disturbing. People with this opinion would dispose of another human if it brought back their star. Are these people much different from Mark David Chapman?

Now, having ruined your day, perhaps this will make it better: While I was perusing the deep philosophical points made on "Ono Should Have Died" ("oh how I hate that ----ing woman!"), I linked to another Facebook group. This one's called "Everyone Should Be A Little More Like John Lennon." The top discussion right now is "all in favour of kill yoko? anyone?" [sic], to which all the responses boil down to "eff off, you cretin. John loved Yoko, and we should, too," reading which did my heart no end of good.

I love you too, Yoko.