Random Story – My Yoko Ono story

This is just an odd little story from my life.

Several years ago, I dated a painter.  In the town where she went to college, was an art gallery run by this couple.  My girlfriend often said that if she could have chosen her parents, this was the couple she would have chosen.  Well, after we’d been dating for a couple of months – and I had met her real parents – she invited this couple to diner to meet me.

I forget what she made for dinner that night, but I wanted to help her out.  Instead, she gave me an art textbook with several things bookmarked to study.  This wasn’t because she expected them to show up and show me a painting and ask who did it.  “Ah, Monet?” “You uncouth fool, it’s clearly a Rembrandt.” She had … issues.  Things were either all or nothing.  I think she feared that if I didn’t come off as the perfect boyfriend, they would think less of her and question why she was wasting her time with someone like me.  In reality, they were probably just happy that she found someone who seemed okay.

Anyway, while I skimmed through overviews of various art movements, she was telling me the couple’s backstory, stuff about their gallery, and all sorts of odds and ends.  In the middle of all of this, she said, “Whatever you do, don’t say anything negative about Yoko Ono.” This made me pause my rushed, art research.  We had been dating for a few months and we knew each other for a few months before we starting dating, and in all of that time Yoko Ono had never come up. 

After a few seconds, I asked, “Why?” Well, it turns out that sometime in the 90’s, there was a mural project somewhere with dozens of artists from around the country working together.  And it just so happened that – I think it was just the husband – worked with Yoko Ono.  They’re not best friends or anything, but they still get a Christmas card from her every year. 

So that’s my Yoko Ono story, and I’ll leave you wondering what kind of Christmas cards she sends out.