08/27/2026
Working on an order for a wedding with the most cheery color palette ever, and it’s giving me joy today.
I wish Dolly Parton could see how unified our country is in her passing. I can’t remember the last event in our history we all agreed on. Your Baptist auntie, your q***r cousin, your hairdresser, your rich and your poor—we all are loved Dolly. Even my 8th grader heard about her passing at school and said, “I heard she could have been a billionaire but gave it away. I want to learn more about a person who does that.”
I’ve been thinking about what it means to be a person like Dolly. The clips of her various interviews over the years are filling my feed, and one thing they have in common is she didn’t seem to take herself too seriously. She wasn’t afraid of making mistakes, she didn’t require herself to be perfect, and she extended that grace to others.
I’ll share one quick thing I learned this week. I didn’t know too much about her personal life and I always figured “Jolene” was written from a place of deep heartbreak and betrayal.
Wrong. She wrote “Jolene” because a bank teller *flirted* with Carl once. Dolly may have been progressive in her values but she believed in some good old fashioned marital rules and SHE DIDN’T WANT NO BANK TELLER GETTIN SWEET ON HER MAN. Good for her. Apparently it became a running joke between Dolly and Carl for decades after the song came out, and I love that so much for her.
What stories about Dolly Parton are coming up for you this week?