It’s 5:30 am, I cannot sleep and Dolly Parton is dead. There is no connection between these two things but it struck me as being a great opening sentence for whatever form today’s musing is going to take. Occasionally I plan these essays out, usually when I think it’s time to do a deep dive on a topic of interest but mainly it’s just brain vomit at some random hour of the day and I’m rather surprised that the end result is even readable half the time. I’ve been writing these entries (?) epistles (?) essays (?) in this form for something over eight years now. Only about a third of them made it into The Accidental Plague Diaries volumes. What should I do with the rest? Print them out and line the cats litter box I suspect. Better grab the ones which might be useful for ‘Boom’ before they’re too badly stained.
Dolly Parton was a first year Baby Boomer, born in 1946. She was not the one I expected to go this year. That honor would have gone to Liza Minelli who has been looking very frail at recent public appearances Other first year Baby Boomers (or very close) are Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, Cher, Susan Sarandon, Sally Field, John Waters, Sylvester Stallone, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Donald Trump, and Steven Spielberg. They are all entering their uncertain 80s and we are going to hear of more and more icons of Western pop culture leaving us more and more rapidly in the coming years. It’s been a few year and there, but starting around 2030, when the lead edge of the Boom hits their mid-80s, it’s going to accelerate. Roughly 18% of the Boom (those born 1946-64 inclusive) has already died. Another 3 or 4% will die between now and 2030. Of the Boom population that will see that date on the right side of the sod, somewhere around 45% will die in the 2030s and another 45% in the 2040s. By 2050, only about 5% of the original Boom will be living and will range in age from 86 to 104 and will no longer be a major social force. (I expect I will go in that second cohort in the 2040s as that’s when I hit my uncertain 80s – going from 78-88 over that decade). Gen X will also be in their 70s and 80s and the Millennials will be of retirement age so Gen Z, Gen alpha and Gen beta will be in charge. Demography is destiny.
I’ve been peripheral to arts and entertainment circles on a national level for forty some years now and have heard a lot of scuttlebutt about celebrities over that time. The one person that I have never heard an unkind word or negative remark about in all of that time was Dolly Parton. She was not only incredibly talented, she was a smart business woman and a kind soul who believed in treating everyone with respect and leaving everything she touched better than when she found it. In a time when American Christianity seems to be drifting farther and farther away from the message of the gospels, she exemplified what the faith should and could be. I love my UU church and family but if someone out there starts a church of Dolly, I might be tempted. She was self deprectaing, the first to laugh at her image, never forgot her roots or her people, transformed the lives of the people of Appalachian Tennessee, gave generously, especially to children, and sustained a very happy marriage of nearly sixty years. I think the most fitting words for her epitaph are ‘Well Done’.
I never got to meet Dolly. I’ve never gotten to meet most people. I did perform with her once, in a fashion. A few years back, I played the Sterling Hayden role in the stage version of 9 to 5. The rental package includes video clips starring Dolly as narrator at the top and the end of the show. Our video clips were a bit tempermental and Dolly missed her cues on a couple of performances, something the live Dolly would never have stood for. It’s not the greatest of musicals, but it’s a lot of fun and that title song remains one for the ages. There is a social media movement afoot to have an unofficial holiday for her. If May the Fourth can be Star Wars Day, then September Twentyfifth needs to be Dolly Parton day (9/25). I am entirely in favor of this idea. Perhaps we all need to get out our rhinestones and tease our platinum blonde wigs to get ready for the occasion.
I was looking back over the political headlines of this past week and becoming somewhat nauseous. Hegseth’s purging of the Pentagon of talent in favor of ideology seems to have pretty much hamstrung our military. Trump is threatening to tear down The Kennedy Center if he can’t have his name on it. The Republicans continue to enforce policies that are destroying our immigration system, immigrant communities, and don’t seem to care who gets caught in the crossfire (remember that demographics is destiny thing? The die off of the Boom means that there will be more deaths than births in the US from 2030-2050 and, as everything in our society is set up around expansion, the only way to do that is going to be through continued immigration). There are lots of ominous signs that the Republicans will try to fix the midterm elections one way or another. The food safety system appears to be collapsing. And the president seems bound and determined to piss off all of our allies and trading partners.
I’m not sure I can take another two and a half years…
Life, The Universe, and Everything 