Dolly

I've never bought one of her records, I don't follow her career but for some reason I'm a bit of a Dolly Parton fan. Underneath all that artificial "do" I sense someone quite genuine. I admire her spunk and enjoy her humor. She makes me smile.

Some Dolly-Wisdom:
"I wake up with new dreams every day. And the more you do, when you're a dreamer, the more everything creates other arenas you can go into. It's like a tree with many branches, and branches with many leaves."

"I have a place of worship in each of my homes. Even in my apartment, I have a little pray-do where I can kneel. I pray as I walk around, but it's a way to remind you that it ain't gonna hurt you to get on your knees and humble yourself before God."

"I've learned through the years to communicate with God as I perceive him. I pray for guidance, and I accept the things that come as an answer to prayers."

"Her faith drives her," says Danny Nozell, Parton's manager. "She thinks about things, she prays on them, then she makes a decision. And the decisions more often than not go her way." When they don't, Parton still keeps the faith. "I think, 'Well, maybe God's got something better for me.'"

"It's so boring to me to get on a treadmill or to get on the floor. I'd rather pull cotton, you know, and think."

"I never feel like I've got too much to do. I love being creative. I love to work."

"It makes you feel better about your own success if you don't just hoard all that money. I always pray to God, 'Well, give me enough to share and enough to spare.'"

I'm not much of a "Dolly" myself (who is?), our worlds are about as opposite as the ends of the planet, but I would certainly love to have her for a friend.


Quotes from May/June 2009 AARP Magazine