It's Not Therapy - Epi 183 - The Feel Good Wisdom of Dolly Parton

Last week was bad crazy, right? We got hit hard by celebrity deaths.

Tim Curry, Peter Cullen, otherwise known as the voice of Optimus Prime, otherwise known the voice of Eeyore, even King Harald of Norway died.

But I have joked on social media that as someone who grew up in the 1980s, my childhood died last week.

And you'll notice I haven't mentioned Dolly Parton because I'm going to be mentioning Dolly Parton for the rest of the show.

Dolly Parton hit a lot of people, especially hard, With good reason.

She stood out in people's minds as someone who was near universally beloved in an era of strongly divided political stuff.

And she had very progressive social values, especially by the standards of country music.

But she also had this feel-good quality about her, right? This feel-good wisdom.

She had a signature authenticity, obvious good humor.

She was hilarious.

But she also had a strong sense of right and wrong that guided what she did.

well, okay, we wouldn't care about any of this if she didn't have a huge amount of talent, that iconic Claire Soprano voice, even more impressive songwriting skills, but...

You know, that aside, she was a good person and seemingly a happy person.

And that's what we're going to talk about tonight.

The feel good wisdom of Dolly Parton.

Now, again, she avoided political partisanship.

Now, how much did she avoid the political partisanship? She refused the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump personally.

twice.

Now, I looked up why.

It wasn't because it was Trump, officially.

It was because Dolly's husband was ill, and then it was to avoid travel during the COVID lockdowns.

Well, then Joe Biden came into office, and she refused it from Joe Biden as well, because she said, now if you ever take it, I'll be doing politics.

And, you know, she couldn't do politics because she had loyal fans from both the Republican and Democrat sides of the aisle.

Now, avoiding politics for Dolly didn't mean she avoided taking a stand on issues.

And this is what made her unique and special.