Step one: be yourself, no apologies, no excuses.

Step two: love other people fully, exactly as they are without judgement, and help them, as you can.

Step three: shine, like a goddamn rhinestone, and have fun.

This week, we lost a legend in Dolly Parton. Someone who, like Mr. Rogers, was always kind. Who did a tremendous amount of good, not for accolades, but because it was the kind thing to do. Simply because Dolly was in a position to, and she chose to be a force for good.

She gave children books. She donated to fund the Moderna vaccine that saved countless lives. She gave folks money, when their homes were consumed by fire.

And she did it all in heels, wearing makeup and wig so high that it was clearly the closest to god a mortal could get—all the while with a sense of humor so sharp but also warm. A master at deflecting conversations to not focus on the negative, but bolster support for those who needed it, whether that was the LGBTQA+ community or Black Lives Matter. Dolly believed in practical kindness and spent her entire life giving back.

I miss her, even though I didn’t know her underneath the Dolly persona. But I could see enough of her big her to love her, and you know what? She loved me too — she loved all of us, too.

And some personal joy: I found out last night that Offerings for Ordinary Gods received an excellent review from Reactor magazine!!! You can read it here: https://reactormag.com/book-review-offerings-for-ordinary-gods-by-ali-trotta/

Tiny me was fully obsessed with this song:

PS: I mourn Tim Curry, too—from LEGENDS to Muppet Treasure Island to Rocky Horror to CLUE to my favorite Stallone movie, Oscar, Curry was a gem of a human and brilliant.