Today is my dedicated writing day for the week, and the plan was to spend the afternoon updating an older blog post that speaks well to the bravery needed if one is to be an intuitive person in the world. I write a lot of posts like these. It’s always felt risky in our culture to trust our intuition, but especially in the last 10 years intuition is cast as a rare, unreliable, and dangerous pursuit, so by default much of my work centers around helping my clients pick the cobwebs of terror off of their own still, small voice.

This week’s can wait.

Because as they say, we make plans and God laughs. I had a wonderful morning at work, mostly because I am back at work. My broken arm is doing so well, mostly because it’s not broken anymore. The soft tissue is healing under the expert care of a wonderful PT, and my energy is improving too. The weather is phenomenally pleasant, as we are on the eve of the two most spectacular months in Maine. I arrived home jubilant about all of this, made myself some lunch, and after I finished and was walking over to the sink to rinse off my plate, Bill looked up from his phone and said, “Oh no. Dolly’s gone”.

Can I tell you how much in that moment I wanted there to be another Dolly so badly? But of course there isn’t. She is the only one.

She was a genius, who could dash off labor anthems as easily as she gave voice to laments of deepest heartbreak and adoration. We know so many of these songs by heart, where we keep them nestled and safe forever.

In her life she was the most stunning example of what kindness and generosity look like when we trust ourselves to be capable of both. She showed us what it looks like to simply choose to be a good human, made sure we all knew that we all have at least some good within us and that it’s there in order that we share it. She refused to judge anyone and showed us how soft and lighthearted that makes us. She never took herself seriously and yet she was somehow always so put together she personified perfection.

She was beautiful inside and out, stunning and sparkly and light.

And so, this afternoon I’m writing this instead. I’m so desperately sad, crying on and off, trying to make this piece worthy of how much I appreciated the example she set for all of us. Someone I know posted a picture of her with the comment, I didn’t even understand she was mortal….which made me realize, I didn’t either. I mean of course she was a human being, but she wasn’t like most of us.

And I admit part of me thought she would be here forever. She brought balance to the absurd levels of cruelty, greed, and fear abounding through the world right now. I am unmoored knowing she isn’t here anymore.

She would probably remind us that her spirit never died. That her essence is eternal.

Also I could have sworn she had a cameo on The Good Place as God or an Angel, because I remember crying through the whole episode, but I can’t find any information online that confirms it…..

…..which probably confirms it. It’s all the proof I need.

RIP, Dolly, and thank you so very much for the time we had with you. Our memories of you are already such a blessing.

Susan

UPDATE: Dolly played an angel on Grace and Frankie in the final episode!!! Not The Good Place 😉

Also, check out this podcast from 2019, Dolly Parton’s America, produced by Jad Abumrad of Radio Lab fame, whose father was Dolly’s friend. More than anything else I knew about her, this podcast taught me how who she is is forever embedded into what we think of as a true American icon.