Daily Cascade

The Dolly Parton Effect

Prompt: "Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion. " Dolly Parton Steel Magnolias Write about this in your Blog entry today.

----------

Who doesn't like Dolly Parton? Forget about her huge talent but haven't we all been infected by her humor and wisdom?

Just like everything else she does, this quote of hers captures a deep truth about the human experience, blending joy and sorrow and humor and grief. In fact, humor can be a source of healing, especially in our most difficult moments.

It is possible that Dolly Parton's upbringing of poverty and hardship on the rural Tennessee mountains taught her to balance any hardship with humor. But then, many other people have had the same or similar experiences and they did come out morose and lacking humor. It must be Dolly Parton's family who taught her to find ways to laugh in the face of seriously hurtful life events. No wonder this "laughter through tears" is usually a theme in many of her songs. Added to this, is the contrast of her entire persona with sparkly outfits and big hair and an honest and complex personal life.

Lucky for us that, through her witty remarks and songs, Dolly Parton has shown us that even in the moments of sadness and difficulty, there's always room for joy, humor, and connection. This is because life is often bittersweet, and those moments of laughter amidst the tears are what keep us going.

Funny that, when I started to answer this prompt, I had thought I'd write about the quote. Instead what I wrote turned out to be more about Dolly Parton, probably because Dolly Parton herself is a representative of this quote as she embodies its idea beautifully both in her art and her life.