A life's purpose
As we all know, yesterday we lost one of the truly good people of this world. The great tzaddik Dolly Parton passed away at the age of 80. The tributes came pouring forth. From Hillary Clinton. From Miley Cyrus. From Eminem. From ordinary people from all walks of life. They imagined Dolly reunited with her beloved husband, Carl. They imagined Dolly meeting in the afterlife with Whitney Houston and making celestial music. The grief was palpable and real. It was not feigned. It was not engendered by social media influence. It was a recognition that a great soul had passed on to that undiscovered country from whence no one has returned. Why? Why did Dolly have such an almost-universal effect on people, on strangers who knew her only from media, from records, from film? What was the source of her power, of her influence? For she did have power and influence. Yet she never used it for her own aggrandizement. You may have, on driving down our highways and byways—and to our oversea...
