Y'all know I love Dolly, right? This woman is my hero; I want to be just like her when I grow up.
Christmas is kicking my ass this year, but tonight, she had just what I needed.
Meditation on This Sunday's Gospel
9 hours ago
12.17.2010
4 comments:
"So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was."
-Saint Molly Ivins
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How is it that I simply you are a Dolly fan, too?
ReplyDeleteDolly was the topic of many conversations at my liberal, women's college; mostly speculation about her sexual orientation. I thought that sort of beyond the point. The voice!! More importantly, the presence!!
I've always been captivated by her narrative. "Telling your story" is a big tag-line in the Episcopal Church right now: learn how your story intertwines with God's story. It's used, rather surreptitiously as tool for evangelism, "See? You don't have to have a come-to-Jesus moment, you can look back at your story and see God with you."
But Dolly took control of her own story long before it became a marketing tool. She's used her hard-scrabble life and sometimes improbable beauty to her music and business advantage, not by changing it but by highlighting it. I'll never forget her talking after the Northridge earthquake. She said that she didn't leave the house of a friend where she was staying, because at 3 in the morning her hair wasn't done and her makeup wasn't on and she didn't want to ever disappoint her fans, even if it meant her life. Silly? Maybe. To my mind, it shows a level of concern for her story that is worth trying to emulate.
The sexual orientation question never occurred to me...huh. And I hadn't thought of her as a likely topic at a women's college, though now I can see how she'd be exactly that.
ReplyDelete"Telling your story" is *exactly* what spiritual direction is about-- telling it, and at the same time listening to it to hear God's place in it. We're on the same page there.
And now you have me feeling like I'll have to write another post (or a series of posts?) on all the ways that Dolly is beyond magnificent. Stay tuned, schweethaaaht. (Why is Bogie talking about Dolly? No idea what happened there...)
As always, you've said more than I can respond to, all of it thoughtful.
Well, it was the 90s, which seem to me a time of incredible discussion about sex & power in all ways. In fact, she is married, and has been, to the same man for many, many years.
ReplyDeleteThis begs the question: when women are unwilling to talk about their loved ones, why do we automatically assume they are gay? I feel this is particularly true when women do not have children (and Dolly does not) and when they are powerfully "pretty."
Still praying, my friend. Ass-kicking Christmases really suck, as I know from personal experience.
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