With the passing of the wonderful Dolly Parton a few days ago, the world got a little dimmer.

We all know about the millions of books she sent to children each year, and there are undoubtedly hundreds of other examples of her philanthropy that we never heard about.

Dolly’s greatest gift to us wasn’t books, or money though, it was Dolly being Dolly – and if we could all be more like Dolly, the light we just lost could spread to others. We could all become beacons of kindness and dignity and empathy. Her passing could, if we really wanted it to, spark a new light in all of us.

I can’t express Dolly’s real gift to us any better than Robert Arnold did in this video on his Substack. It’s quite remarkable, and I really encourage you to take a few minutes to watch.

Maybe it will make you question how you are living your life a little bit, or how you see, and feel about others. It might make you proud, or a little ashamed. It did all of that for me, and it gave me a lot to think about.

Dolly Parton was a treasure the world didn’t deserve, which made her existence and her life and her legacy all the more important and inspiring. We would be foolish to let her go without holding on to what she believed, how she treated people, to embrace the gift that she left us, and to all shine a little brighter.

Dolly really was the best of us, despite needing to share the world with the rest of us.