Living a little more Dolly

My son, Ross, posted a comment on Facebook:

“There have been many expressions of gratitude and gratefulness since Dolly Parton passed.

For all of her remarkable successes, victories, and musical achievements, those have been few in mentioning.

Her soul, her spirit of life has been the light we’ve all been thinking and reflecting on. What a testament to the power of kindness, inclusion, fairness, humor, and genuine love.

I hope we each may live a little more “Dolly”, we need it more than ever.”

Ross’s words struck a chord with me. Both sides of the political aisle have, in the past few daya, expressed their emotional outpouring of love for a person who truly earned, through her actions, talent, personality and empathy,  the respect and love of an entire nation, across all lines of  separateness that, on a day-to-day basis, defines today’s America.

Dolly reached us in our cores. She walked the very rare line that we have seen in which a person with a national presence completely bypassed the “them and us” of divisiveness and lived in the world of “we”.

The way that she lived through her songs, her words and her actions can serve as a north star to each of us. “We” can choose to follow her star and begin to heal the rifts that crowd our headlines. As Ross noted, Dolly’s life will continue to lead  us if we each choose the world of “we”,,,live a little more Dolly.

Bill@safeharborpathways.com