Dolly Parton

Unless you're living under a rock without internet, I'm sure you've heard Dolly Parton passed away at the age of 80. The odd thing about it for me is this isn't the first post I'm making about her this year. On May 12, I posted an entry which began with the remark, "Dolly Parton has been cropping up in my life lately." And now she's come up again.

A lot of the commentary about her life and career has come back to the fact that she was not partisan. She refused throughout her long career to endorse certain political candidates and believed not judging the lifestyles of others was simply part of being a Christian. I don't know how clear it's been if you've been reading my blog entries for a few years, but in all the political rancor that has calcified in the past ten years or so, I've come to particularly dislike partisans and zealots of both the right and left, anyone who would seek to dehumanise an opponent, who would at every opportunity push a biased interpretation of some action done or belief held by those of the opposite persuasion. The heartening thing about the reaction to Parton's death is the evidence that a lot of other people are sick of this, too.

I was in Tennessee for a few weeks in April and May this year, assisting the executor of my recently deceased father's estate. His name's Ricky and he used to work for Dolly Parton and her brother, Randy, as a sound engineer and musician. He told me a lot of stories about her and her tendency to take a personal interest in the lives of her employees and their families. Ricky said he hadn't been able to get in touch with her for a while and he was worried about it. Now we know why.

We spent time in Sevierville, where Parton was born. I donated some saddlebags that had been in my family since the 1800s to a museum there. A bookstore across the street had a poster for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, Parton's organisation devoted to fostering literacy in young people and encouraging them to read books. Hopefully people will now feel even further inspired to teach children the value of reading for pleasure and instruction.

I thought Parton was a decent actress and I like a few of her songs. I was never really a fan but I have to say she's earned a lot of respect from me.