There is something about Dolly Parton that I keep returning to. I've thought about her on and off for years, long before the recent wave of public mourning, and it isn't really the music that pulls me back. Or the career. It's something harder to name. Her humanity, I guess. Or maybe her ability to remain genuinely, stubbornly human in a world that seems increasingly determined to sort us into categories before we've even opened our mouths. I keep going back to her because I think I'm trying to remember something. And somehow, thinking about her helps me remember it. What struck me most was how hard she was to pin down. She didn't seem particularly interested in the ideological camps that have become almost mandatory if you want to be taken seriously in public life. You didn't have to figure out which side she was on before you were allowed to appreciate her. You didn't have to place her. And that was the gift, I think. The possibility that you could hav...