I had planned to write on another subject but my world, along with our country, was devastated to learn of the death of Dolly Parton this week. When we look for modern examples of love, joy, and kindness in action, few figures shine as brightly as Dolly Parton. While she is globally celebrated as a music icon, her true legacy is rooted in how she lived her life. It’s like Dolly picked all nine of the Fruit of the Spirit stars from the basket and the Holy Spirit immediately began working. She modeled love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—creating a profound impact on millions of lives worldwide.
It feels like there are so few people that can bring everyone together in this broken world, but Dolly could. My heart is heavy from this loss. Yet, what a challenge to continue her legacy of unconditional love for humanity. She used her platform to unite rather than divide, consciously choosing to spread harmony.
I’ll admit that when I was younger, I judged Dolly on her appearance and didn’t give her the time of day. I couldn’t understand how she could dress that way while women had worked so hard to overcome stereotypes and to be judged for our accomplishments, not our looks. Thankfully, I have learned that we need to celebrate our differences and you certainly can’t judge someone by their looks. She was incredibly smart, a master of marketing and business savvy. She was also the epitome of championing women and lifting them up.
She dressed how she thought was beautiful. I love her style inspiration story of the woman in town who had yellow hair piled on her head, red nails, and high heeled shoes. Dolly thought she was the prettiest thing she had ever seen. She would say to her Momma, “she’s so pretty”, and her mom would say, “she’s just trash” and Dolly thought to herself, “that’s what I want to be when I grow up!” Always her authentic self, she constantly demonstrated that she loved and cared for all no matter their appearance or their life circumstances.
We could easily spend hours talking about the way she embraced everyone, her quick wit, infectious laugh, unmatched grace, and her life changing generosity of not only her spirit and time but financially too.
Dolly may be gone but we can continue her legacy of living and loving like Jesus. Dolly’s faith was always central to who she was and she shared that freely. WWJD (What would Jesus do?) became a massive merchandising phenomenon in the 1990s, driven heavily by colored bracelets that were to remind us to think about this before we acted. For these coming weeks, we can add to WWJD, WWDD (What would Dolly do?) because I’m sure they would mirror each other.
While we may not share her musical talent, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can strive to embody the Fruit of the Spirit that we so dearly loved seeing in her. Let’s make her proud and be an active force of love, uplifting the vulnerable and giving every child a fair start in life. She reminds us that no matter what our background, our greatest calling is simply to love our neighbors well.
Yours in Christ,
Angie Seiller, Director of Faith Formation
*If you wish to honor Dolly by continuing her legacy, please visit https://imaginationlibrary.com/ to donate to her cause or to sign your child up for Imagination Library where they will recieve a free book a month until they turn 5 years old.