September Song

 I can’t really add much to all the well-deserved tributes paid to the late Dolly Parton, who was certainly a national treasure in so many ways: singer/songwriter, actress and comedienne, shrewd businesswoman and philanthropist, and an all-around good person, which is certainly a rare trait in show business, or anywhere really.

Outside the world of music, Dolly was especially respected for donating over 330 million books to children all over the world for the past 30 years to promote a love of reading in children, through her “Imagination Library”, making her a hero to teachers and librarians everywhere.

In a time of conflict and controversy about a new and scary epidemic in 2020, she donated over one million dollars to Vanderbilt University for research on the new Covid vaccine in 2020. She had herself photographed getting her vaccine shot too, to make it seem less scary to the nervous millions out there.

Writer David Graham in The Atlantic notes that “Dolly Parton commanded nearly universal admiration among Americans and her death leaves an absence that no contemporary cultural figure could dream of filling.” And all this while wearing flamboyant outfits and those amazing blonde wigs and poking fun at herself.  That wonderful line: “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.” The   world is certainly a duller place without her in it.

Speaking of music, this year marks 40 years since the release of Paul Simon’s outstanding “Graceland” album, one of the best albums of our era and one of my favorites. I hope he will be with us a while longer. There is a new book out about the making of “Graceland” called “Days of Miracle and Wonder” that I am looking forward to reading.

And speaking of music and the passage of time, the Rolling Stones are still making new music in their 80’s. My daughter helpfully pointed out to me that the amount of time that has lapsed since the Stones first appeared on the scene in the mid-60’s is roughly the same amount of time (i.e. 60 years) since the greatest hits of the day were turn-of-the-20^th century songs like “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis” and those favorite old classics from George M. Cohan like “Give My Regards to Broadway”.

Now that will give you pause! Could I just say that time seems to mean nothing to me anymore? I often think, “Never mind missing the 60’s and 70s; I’m nostalgic for the 80’s and 90’s.” I can’t seem to accept that the mid-1970’s were 50 years ago (!)

Sometimes you still hear someone refer to the “turn of the century” when they mean 1900. Old habits die hard. Not many people use the phrase for our new (not so new now) century. I just say “since the millennium” which is pretty clear. And how did the millennium get to be over a quarter of a century ago, I ask, while humming “Who Knows Where the Time Goes”.

This year is the 25th anniversary of the World Trade Center atrocity. What a sad, disturbing, and horrifying time that was. And to think that younger people today will have no personal memories of that terrible time. As we race headlong into the world of massive data centers blotting the landscape and the scary world of AI and billionaire technocrats trying to run (ruin?) the world, not even to mention the deadly heatwaves, fires and floods of climate change, the future does seem alarming.

September has always seemed melancholy to me in some way. This is ironic in that we often have our most beautiful weather in early fall. I guess it’s the knowledge of what is going to follow the pleasant spell soon enough. The encroaching darkness in the evening is a reminder of this.

Now to get on my favorite hobby-horse: daylight savings time, or the lack of it. As this topic is discussed yet again, here is just a reminder that if we did have year-round standard time, the sun would rise around 4am and set around 7:30pm in June, where we live in New England. That is something I am not interested in seeing. There is simply not enough light to go around in the winter. Guess we’ll have to take it up with the solar system.