Here’s the text for the 22 January 2024 “Pause for Thought” I offered on the Breakfast Show with Zoe Ball on BBC Radio 2. Listen here.

________________

Zoe, when I was on your show the first time, I was sooooo nervous. I worried: would I mess up? Would you like me? What would people think of my weirdly-pitched American accent?

As I climbed the stairs to your studio that day, my heart was in my throat. But in the stairwell there’s a picture of Dolly Parton from a time she was here. And when I saw her smiling that smile, I felt God speak to my anxious heart, in the voice of Dolly herself: Honey, I created you. So you be you, and I’ll shine though, and you’ll be – just fine. And I was.

I thought of that experience last Friday because Dolly turned 78 yo. Dolly, honey, if you’re listening, Happy Birthday!

Dolly has always captivated me. Maybe ‘cause we’re both Tennesseans. Or because my parents played her records when I was young and her music’s been running through my veins ever since. Or maybe it’s because I think Dolly is the same person wherever she is – she’s simply being who she was created to be.

But mostly I love how Dolly Parton helps people feel the goodness flowing through life – the goodness in ourselves, the goodness way beyond ourselves. Her Glastonbury set in 2014 was a revival. People of different spiritualities and none, hands up in the air praising, or searching for something beyond themselves, because Dolly was pointing the way.

And Lord in heaven she. Is. funny. Parkinson asked her once where she got her signature look. And she talked about walking as a child with her mother in their poor mountain town, and they saw a fabulously-dressed woman with high-heels, red lipstick, peroxide-blonde hair piled-up high.  Dolly hadn’t known it was the town prostitute, a sex-worker in the village.  And she said: “Mama, who’s that? She’s beautiful.” Her mother snapped back: “Honey, she ain’t nothing but trash!” And Dolly said: “Oh Mama, that’s what I wanna be: I wanna be trash!”

I love that story. Dolly saw that woman in a way that others didn’t: as a human being – not trash, but treasure.

So Dolly’s been called the Queen of Country, but I think a better title for her is “saint”.

In the Christian faith, saints aren’t just dead people churches are named after. A saint is anybody, really, who sees like God sees, who loves like Jesus loves, who helps others see and love in a bigger way. Saints point fingers – but not to judge, instead to reveal hidden treasure.

Now, I have no influence in the official process of canonizing saints. I’ll leave that to the Pope. But whether we identify as sinners or saints or both, let’s raise our cups today to the unofficial Saint Dolly Parton and let’s also raise our cups to the goodness flowing through everything.