Be nice? Dolly would

Usually when a celebrity dies – and call me callous here if you like – I don’t give it too much thought, usually because the person hasn’t done the thing you connected with them over in at least 20 years.

There’s usually a nostalgia to the mourning of public figures, people having to confront the fact that a part of their lives is long gone.

I think too often we conflate the artist and their work – why do we only try to separate them when it turns out we don’t actually like the person who’s created something we love? People should be allowed not to be the things they’ve done.

But there was something about Dolly Parton that upends all that – the world feels poorer without her presence in it, someone who was aware of the power of kindness but also the power that she wielded.

And weirdly, it’s almost impossible to find someone who genuinely disliked her. I’m not talking about the people who took irrationally against her music or her image, but people who knew her and interacted with her. It doesn’t seem to have been an act. There are plenty of notables around these days you could point to and well imagine that they aren’t quite the same person when nobody’s watching.

So a moment of acknowledgment for the passing of Dolly Parton isn’t pining nostalgia for a time gone by, but rather just to note that the world is slightly poorer for her absence.