14.Dec.2009 Role Model of the Week: Yoko Ono
When we were younger there were our older sisters, Disney stars and fairytale princesses. But who do we look up to now that we’ve grown up? Eschewing the drugged-out celebrities and philandering politicians, each week we seek someone who inspires. The talented, the hard-working and the unconventional are put on display here, giving us all something to strive towards.
Most of us know her as “John Lennon’s wife”, but there is plenty more to Yoko Ono that’s worth acknowledging.
She’s a long-time peace activist who experience the horrors of war first hand during WWII, during which her father was incarcerated in a concentration camp, leaving Yoko, her mother and her siblings to beg for food on the streets.
It’s her conceptual art that led to her relationship with John, which in turn led to a joint musical output.
Her unfailing optimism in life belies a sometimes difficult life – her first daughter was kidnapped by her then-husband; not to mention the murder of John Lennon, her third husband. “’We’re growing up together, the human race,” she says, “And we’ve discovered a lot of things that we didn’t know. We’re finding our way. Instead of thinking about doomsday all the time, think about how beautiful the world is. We’re all together and together we’re getting wiser.”
Say what you will about her “breaking up the Beatles”, but Yoko Ono is an extremely accomplished, determined artist of great convictions, who has fought on despite great personal tragedy.
