It’s been a struggle; like the effort and hilarity that ensues to avoid a fall. I will not write some missive about the loss of Dolly Parton and Tim Curry. Not me. I’ll write of why I skipped my high school reunion with the hypothesis that I only spent… well, never mind. I’ve fallen and I can’t get up. To take a break, I went to the block party for Jaylen Brown, and as I walked home, I recalled the self-righteous rant I went on about the trade of Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia and the loss for Boston. In my hypocritical stupor, I sat at the Martin Luther King Embrace memorial and thought about celebration and memorials.
Me and Dolly and Tim too go back to college days at the University of Tennessee. I had a roommate who insisted on Dolly hour so we could appreciate Dolly Parton. Ohhhh, that Jolene!!! But this was the ’70s, and there was that Sweet Transvestite from Transylvania, Tim Curry. What a wonderful, rich world to live in where both these icons exist, each inclusive to everyone in their own way. It would be more than 20 years before I got a chuckle out of them both being in the mockumentary, Jackie’s Back.
We all have our memories of what made Dolly special. I mean, besides an incredible talent, it was her heart. Dolly’s Imagination Library sends a book a month (a book a month!) to children up to the age of 5 — no income requirement, just books, for the last 30 years. All the Dolly tributes are coming out, and if you’re a fan, I don’t need to repeat them here. Dolly was one of a kind. Come on, did you hear her version of “Purple Rain” on her rock album? Dolly was for the people.
As a rather naive 18-year-old, Tim Curry ushered me into the idea of being whoever you want and wearing whatever you want, with abandon. The prolific Mr. Curry managed absolute privacy, reminiscent of that Sting song: “…and you’ll still know nothing ’bout me.” Tim could be villain, hero, or comic relief. The man could commit. Tim had a stroke at 67 and said of the experience, “If death comes for me peacefully and I fade gently from light into dark oblivion, why would I be afraid of it? Sometimes, I rather think it would be a comfort.”
Today was the goodbye to Jaylen Brown, and the realization: we want to celebrate people. What is it about someone that makes you want to celebrate them? Is it something you admire, something you support, something that can become a legacy? It’s no secret, my passion for books and e-cards that allow people under the age of 23 in any state to check out banned books. As I wrote about more recently, the death checklist — I think somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought about Tim Curry’s stroke happening at my age, and made sure my paperwork and things are set up. Finally, with Jaylen, it’s just a love of Boston and a willingness to support organizations here.
There will be no new one, there will be no next one; they are the one-of-a-kind originals. My takeaway, for me, is that it’s more than a picture post of someone I don’t know — it’s doing acts that show the profound influence they’ve had on me
Balancing on Unstable Surfaces 