The Best of Us
It's hard not to think about the idea of legacy this week, in light of Dolly Parton's passing.
In addition to her musical legacy:
She bought an interest in a theme park in Pigeon Forge TN, now known as Dollywood and visited by 4 million people per year, as a way to give back to her state. She said, “I always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, that I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something that would bring a lot of jobs into this area.”
Her Imagination Library has delivered more than 332 million books to more than 3 million children. When children age out of the program, they receive a letter from Dolly: “You and all of your friends are very special. There is no limit to what you can do or how far you can go. . . . you can be anyone you want to be.” (Side note: here's a link to donate, if you feel called to do so.)
She brought awareness to the AIDs crisis, to discrimination against women, and stood by the idea that everyone deserves to be treated with fairness and dignity, saying that we should “not criticize and judge other people. I think we should be accepting and loving.”
And, she stood by what she believed. “Don't ever sacrifice who you are, your principles and your morals and your values to just try to get ahead in business. It ain't worth it.”
As many have said this week, "Dolly was the best of us."
She continually used what she had to create more goodness in the world.
What if legacy is, ultimately, leaning into goodness over and over again?
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