THE LAST RIVER MILE

Today many of us are reacting to the passing of a larger than life presence in American culture. There’s never been anyone quite like Dolly Parton, and there never will be again. The Queen of Country Music was queen of much in addition to that. We are honoring her for far more than her incredible musical talent.

Do you notice what’s happening to us with Dolly’s death, nation-wide? Memorials from all corners of our culture afford her a status higher than the greatest athletes, the most renowned entertainment icons, and the most impacting world leaders. People from political, philosophical, and theological camps which we thought would never agree on anything seem to concur that the world is a permanently better place because Dolly Parton was a part of it.

Why is this happening? We haven’t been this united around anyone or anything, since…when?!? What was it/is it about her?

Dolly has a focused, warm, and unapologetic Christ-like faith. I saw (and reposted) a meme that pictured Jesus and Dolly talking, with Jesus saying, “I think you understand me better than theologians do!” (He’s right, BTW!) Dolly practiced a level of proportional generosity that puts most of the current financial movers and shakers to shame. She had a humble good humor, and was completely comfortable with laughing at herself. (She once said, “It takes a lot of money to look this cheap!”) Dolly was the genuine article and she believed every human being deserves the right to be exactly who God made them to be. From that, she had a wide-open, welcoming posture toward all persons, especially those on the margins.

Still, why are we setting aside all our issues, anxieties, and polarities (at least for today) to mourn and celebrate this incredible woman?

Is it possible that we all hunger for someone like Dolly Parton was and is? Could it be that we long for a world defined by Dolly’s heart? In the toxic swamp that life in 2026 can so often be, are we in fact aching to believe that our better selves somehow can prevail, as Dolly’s did for her entire life?

What if the script we’ve been living is wrong? Political leaders in child-like tantrums with one another…groups of all kinds demonizing each another…Olympic levels of self-indulgence and indifference…religion used more as a weapon that means of care and salvation…What if all that isn’t the “real world” at all, but a false world? Is the way Dolly saw the world and treated the world is in fact the way life is supposed to be?

In addition to mourning the passing of a truly great human being, could that be what’s going on with us?

Go rest high up on that mountain, Dolly. You were and are the best.

I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.