It's not that so many people love her and hate her. No, it's not the Peacemother or Dragon Lady thing, though those are pretty heavy stories. They're not it. It's not that she was married to one of the most-loved, most influential, most famous rock star/artists in the world, or that she is wealthy and charitable. Those too are stories that could stand alone. But they're not it.

The way I see it, the story is this. Yoko Ono is a study in perserverance. "Winter passes and one remembers one's perserverance." Yoko has had to perservere so many times, against so many odds. Against racism. Against critics of J&Y's rather unique approach to putting the word peace in the headlines. Against the sometimes smothering effects of a feminist artist being known as Mrs. John Lennon.

There haven't been too many people in the public eye who have suffered more at the hands of poison pen critics and public ignorance than Yoko. Yet she never gives up or gives in. When she's feeling creative, she creates. When she feels the urge to reach out and touch the hands of her supporters, she launches a world tour, tying in Peace by calling it a STARPEACE tour. Then she heads out to countries where rock fans rarely glimpse anyone from the rock world. Not a profitable venture, but a truly Yokoish act of love.

Nothing stops her from doing whatever she wants to do. And she does it all knowing full well that running on ahead of each project will be the Negative Crowd. The leeches who feed off her celebrity by filling up the pages of their papers with opinions and innuendo that were born all those years ago, and which some reporters insist on rehashing again and again. Haven't there been times when you've just stopped and thought, "There must be some fiendish plot to brainwash the masses about Yoko!"? Will her perserverance ever pay off? For her, it probably already has. Yoko Ono has lived a very interesting life, indeed. She has looked adversity straight in the eye hundreds of times and has the satisfaction of knowing that adversity often blinked first. There has to be some little place in the back of her mind where she keeps an ironic smile for the small people who blasted her concert tour without ever setting foot inside the halls to hear even one note. She knows, as well as the lucky ones who attended know, that these narrow-minded people missed one kickass rock and roll show.

When confused fans and cynical media people were calling for the padded cells when John and Yoko were talking peace, peace, peace in the 60's and 70's, could any of us know that Yoko would later be invited to Russia and to Washington DC as a representative for those of us who want the Superpowers to also talk peace and hear us all when we're saying "Give Peace a Chance"?

Perserverance. Never once giving up on talking peace, peace, peace keeps Yoko (and John) inextricably linked with the idea of a more peaceful world, in the minds of music fans around the world and in the minds of leaders of the most powerful nations. Is it just a personal victory for Yoko and John? I think these leaders and government officials know how many people J&Y have represented over the years.

Yoko's perserverance has given those of us who've listened a lesson in positive action. I think women, especially, admire Yoko because of her perserverance. Each of us thinks of how it must be for her to lose her husband - the other half of the sky - in such a horrible way, and to be left with such tremendous responsibilities. Each of us has to admire the way she's handled it. Steadily, step-by-step, taking on each new problem or project with courage and conviction. Lovingly preserving John's memory while carrying on with her own career and life. Weaving her way through the maze of rumors, gossip and legal hassles - rarely defending herself publicly against her detractors.

But no, she's not just sitting there "taking it." She's moving on..Like the rainbow that doesn't really end when it goes out of our sight..perserverance has no ending. It just keeps circling, glorying in its own beauty, whether the rest of us happen to look up and notice it or not.

Happy birthday, Yoko. The better we know you, the more we love you.

"The world has all that you need and you have the power to attract what you wish. Wish for health, wish for joy. Remember you are loved. Remember I love you."
YO, June '85.