01-15-2011, 12:00 AM
The Tea Maker
By YOKO ONO
Published: December 7,
2010
JOHN and I are in our
Dakota kitchen in the middle of the night. Three cats
— Sasha, Micha and Charo —
are looking up at John, who is making tea for
us two.
Sasha is all white, Micha
is all black. They are both gorgeous, classy
Persian cats. Charo, on
the other hand, is a mutt. John used to have a special
love for Charo. “You’ve
got a funny face, Charo!” he would say, and pat her.
“Yoko, Yoko, you’re supposed
to first put the tea bags in, and then the
hot water.” John took the
role of the tea maker, for being English. So I gave
up doing it.
It was nice to be up in
the middle of the night, when there was no sound in
the house, and sip the tea
John would make. One night, however, John said: “
I was talking to Aunt Mimi
this afternoon and she says you are supposed to
put the hot water in
first. Then the tea bag. I could swear she taught me to
put the tea bag in first,
but ...”
“So all this time, we were
doing it wrong?”
“Yeah ...”
We both cracked up. That
was in 1980. Neither of us knew that it was to be
the last year of our life
together.
This would have been the
70th birthday year for John if only he was here.
But people are not
questioning if he is here or not. They just love him and
are keeping him alive with
their love. I’ve received notes from people in all
corners of the world
letting me know that they were celebrating this year
to thank John for having given
us so much in his 40 short years on earth.
The most important gift we
received from him was not words, but deeds. He
believed in Truth, and had
dared to speak up. We all knew that he upset
certain powerful people
with it. But that was John. He couldn’t have been any
other way. If he were here
now, I think he would still be shouting the truth.
Without the truth, there
would be no way to achieve world peace.
On this day, the day he
was assassinated, what I remember is the night we
both cracked up drinking
tea.
They say teenagers laugh
at the drop of a hat. Nowadays I see many
teenagers sad and angry
with each other. John and I were hardly teenagers. But my
memory of us is that we
were a couple who laughed.
Yoko Ono is an artist.
By YOKO ONO
Published: December 7,
2010
JOHN and I are in our
Dakota kitchen in the middle of the night. Three cats
— Sasha, Micha and Charo —
are looking up at John, who is making tea for
us two.
Sasha is all white, Micha
is all black. They are both gorgeous, classy
Persian cats. Charo, on
the other hand, is a mutt. John used to have a special
love for Charo. “You’ve
got a funny face, Charo!” he would say, and pat her.
“Yoko, Yoko, you’re supposed
to first put the tea bags in, and then the
hot water.” John took the
role of the tea maker, for being English. So I gave
up doing it.
It was nice to be up in
the middle of the night, when there was no sound in
the house, and sip the tea
John would make. One night, however, John said: “
I was talking to Aunt Mimi
this afternoon and she says you are supposed to
put the hot water in
first. Then the tea bag. I could swear she taught me to
put the tea bag in first,
but ...”
“So all this time, we were
doing it wrong?”
“Yeah ...”
We both cracked up. That
was in 1980. Neither of us knew that it was to be
the last year of our life
together.
This would have been the
70th birthday year for John if only he was here.
But people are not
questioning if he is here or not. They just love him and
are keeping him alive with
their love. I’ve received notes from people in all
corners of the world
letting me know that they were celebrating this year
to thank John for having given
us so much in his 40 short years on earth.
The most important gift we
received from him was not words, but deeds. He
believed in Truth, and had
dared to speak up. We all knew that he upset
certain powerful people
with it. But that was John. He couldn’t have been any
other way. If he were here
now, I think he would still be shouting the truth.
Without the truth, there
would be no way to achieve world peace.
On this day, the day he
was assassinated, what I remember is the night we
both cracked up drinking
tea.
They say teenagers laugh
at the drop of a hat. Nowadays I see many
teenagers sad and angry
with each other. John and I were hardly teenagers. But my
memory of us is that we
were a couple who laughed.
Yoko Ono is an artist.