Mira
Mira's JournalAn open apology to Dolly Parton -- a heartfelt note to her I found on facebook
Dear Dolly,For example, Id heard about your origins as a poor girl from the hills of East Tennessee, and when I learned youd created a theme park in your native Sevier County I rolled my eyes. Really, a theme park? I thought. As if rollercoasters will really help the people of rural Appalachia. Why not create something truly useful to give back to your community, like a library.
Oh.
You have created a library, actually, and possibly in a bigger and more magical way than any brick structure filled with books could. And this is where my understanding of who you are really began to shift.
When I moved to Knoxville eight years ago I received a welcome letter from Dolly Partons Imagination Library. It informed me that Dollys vision was to foster a love of reading among preschool children by mailing a specially selected book each month directly to any child under the age of 5. You had expanded it from Sevier County to my county, and if I had a preschool age child, it said, all I needed to do was sign her up and she would begin receiving books each month.
My daughter was not quite 2 then, and I can still see how her face lit up each time we pulled a book addressed to her out the mailbox every month. Several of them became her early childhood favorites, and are stored away should she have children of her own some day.
As a writer and editor, Im a book hound and made sure my daughter has been exposed to reading at every turn. But you know better than anyone that not all kids have that privilege. I cant imagine what a magical gift receiving a book every month must be for kids whose parents cant afford to buy them or who dont have easy access to a library. I quickly came to see the genius of your Imagination Library literacy program, and how you were making a difference in so many ways I never realized.
Your father was illiterate, which fueled your literacy passion. Now the Dolly Parton Imagination Library just surpassed gifting one million books to participating children around the world each month. To celebrate, your Dollywood Foundation randomly selected one of those children to receive a $30,000 college scholarship. Two-year-old Evey, from Conway, Arkansas, has no idea yet how fortunate she is, but her parents surely do.
But what finally brings me to this apology is how Ive seen you respond to the devastating wildfires that swept through your hometown communities of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. At least 14 vibrant lives were taken tragically too soon, and thousands of buildings and homes were damaged or destroyed.
You made a public statement saying that you were heartbroken, while also expressing deep gratitude to the firefighters who protected Dollywood and evacuated everyone staying there to safety. This is the place I dismissed, but now know is the largest employer in Sevier County and is the largest ticketed tourist attraction in Tennessee, hosting over 3 million guests a season. East Tennessee will count on that tourism to rebuild.
With the humble generosity and graciousness Im learning is signature Dolly Parton, youre not only planning a telethon to raise funds for the fire victims, but youve also created the My People Fund to provide, as you say, a hand up to all those families who have lost everything in the fires.
Those struggling families will receive, thanks to you, $1,000 a month for 6 months. Countless stories detail how these families escaped with literally minutes to spare, and with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. And with each story, theres a strong undercurrent of hope about how strangers helped one another and how this region is mountain strong. Your generosity both reflects and inspires this regions spirit and resiliency.
Tonight, my daughter, who is now 9 and also loves to sing and act, has been using face paint to dress up as one of the DC comic heroines her friends admire. When she finished, she asked, Hmmm, what other Superhero girl do I admire?
I sat down next to her and said, Let me tell you about Dolly. In fact, I hope to take her to a Christmas show at Dollywood during this season of gratitude, and Ill be making a donation to your My People Fund. I cant imagine a better place to be, or a better way to support an amazing example of what it looks like to make the world a better place, starting with your own sweet community.
Dolly, Im sorry I didnt get you soonerand I thank you for all you are, and all that you do.
Your biggest fan,
Amy Rawe
I, Mira, took this photograph of Pilot Mountain NC 10 days ago, its pretty far away from the fires in the NC and Tennessee mountains, which now have been subdued by rain. It was smoke drifting over the knob of Mount Pilot, I smelled it, and it was quite a sight.
A new job for Lola: what to do to an elephant
In the dollar store I said to the clerk that I had a puppy who is demoralized by the election of Trump. And that I wanted to see if she would feel better after destroying this toy elephant.
The clerk told me she would all but give it to me for that purpose
First thing Lola did was schlepp it across the entire kitchen, down the hall, into her woman cave. She has created this favorite spot for herself under a chair, where she found and turned over an empty basket sideways. She likes to crawl into it and gnaw whatever chew sticks and trinkets she can bring along.
Now, of course, other than my shoes and socks, it's the elephant.
It's a big job, but in photo number two you can see she is beginning to enjoy the task at hand.
Tired of Lola pictures? Just don't look.
In case you did look here is what happens when I need a break. LOL.
She can be incredibly wild - hard to believe when you look at that tiny little baby.........
It won't be long and she will run up and down the steps. Yesterday, after carefully looking down from the top of my bed, and walking around and examining the other sides, she made me feel OK that she understood the distance is three times her length and not safe. Would be a jump of 16 and a half feet for me.
Then she took a deliberate flying leap.
Thank goodness she was just a little stunned.
Many names have been used over time for our new President elect: Here's my favorite
hope you get a chuckle out of it.
HAIR TWITLER
Ben Carson Warns That Bible Makes No Mention of Housing or Urban Development told by Borowitz
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)In his first public statement since Donald Trump chose him to be the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson said on Monday that the Bible makes absolutely no mention of housing or urban development.
Carson said that, when Trump initially asked him to accept the post, the first thing I did was check the Bible to see if there was anything about housing or urban development in there, and much to my dismay there was not.
As you can well imagine, I did not want to be in charge of something that the Bible does not condone, he said. But then I realized that perhaps the Lord wants me to take this job so that I can banish housing and urban development from the earth.
Carson offered no details about how he would eliminate housing, but said that he was seeking advice from Trumps pick for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. Shes basically trying to do the same thing with education, he said.
The retired neurosurgeon said that he was looking forward to taking the reins at HUD but that he had a lot of loose ends to tie up before then. Right now, I need to find my shoes, he said.
www.borowitzreport.com
Sozializing Lola - and she was given her first job as well
Remember when I had many Bernie campaign volunteers staying at my house for weeks on end? Alliances were formed,.
Now, with NC having the KKK march that was such a washout because the wimps never let us know where they were going to be, and also with Standing Rock, and the general malaise about the outcome of the election with Hair Furor coming out on top: they are back in the area, gathering and working.
Today they decided that any tired and stressed activist can come here and chill out with Lola. Now I say thats a great service to Democracy.
This is how to get Trump off the screen....Lola knows
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Gender: Do not displayMember since: Thu Oct 21, 2004, 06:06 PM
Number of posts: 22,458