Unalome: A symbol for the journey to enlightenment. Reminds us that the path isn't always straight, perfect or in the "right" direction. Our paths to awakening are filled with missteps, lessons to learn, and suffering.
In 1988 Dolly Parton pulled every 7th and 8th grader in Sevier County into a room and told them to pick a buddy.
She made them sign a contract.. if BOTH graduate, she hands you both $500. One fails, nobody gets paid.
The county dropout rate went from 35% to 6%.
She handed out the checks herself.
In 1989 she offered $500 to every kid in the county who wanted to go to the local college.
When Gatlinburg burned in 2016, she sent 900 families $1,000 a month for six months.
You've probably heard that part.
Here's the part you haven't:
The fund raised more than expected, so she showed up in May and handed every one of those families another $5,000 on top.
Then she quietly put $3 million into the recovery group that handles the years after the news trucks leave.
She built her county an entire hospital.
She played a benefit concert in 2007, Dollywood and the Stampede matched it, and LeConte Medical Center opened in 2010 with a birthing unit and a women's center in it.
In 2022 she started covering 100% of tuition, books, and fees for Dollywood employees.
Full-time, part-time, AND seasonal.
In 1991 she paid for a bald eagle sanctuary because the birds couldn't be released back into the wild, no press release.
And when Hurricane Helene came through here in Western North Carolina, she wrote a personal check for $1 million and her companies matched it.
She didn't owe North Carolina anything, but she helped us anyway.
She started the Imagination Library because her daddy couldn't read or write. Before he passed, he told her it was the most important thing she ever did.
Rest in Peace, Dolly 🇺🇸
If anyone is wondering how not updating this app since it was twitter is going: pictures display as links, I can’t post replies, I can see the number of QTs but not what they actually say, and I approximately 75% of DMs never show up. But at least I got that bird.
It's heartbreaking how just 3 months ago in a podcast hayden panettiere said "I finally feel like I have shaken off all of this darkness and this negativity... I can feel all the exciting possibilities. I feel like I have a lot more life to live." https://t.co/Cf9T8o2yi6
This is how I’m moving through crowds because people are actually stupid asf now and have no spatial awareness and walk entirely too slow all of the time
On this day in 2006, we released the Here It Goes Again music video. This video cost less than $5,000 and was shot in 17 very sweaty takes, but it took us to the Grammys, the VMAs, and to the email inboxes of millions of people (you couldn’t share videos to social media back then).
20 years later, we actually now can share this to social media. Enjoy!
‘Lilo & Stitch’ creators Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois have shared a piece of artwork honoring the late Daveigh Chase.
Chase voiced Lilo in the ‘Lilo & Stitch’ film.
So you’re basically admitting that men’s greatest fear is being treated the way they’ve treated women for centuries? Interesting. I thought being a stay-at-home mom was “easy,” “not real work,” and something “anyone can do.” But suddenly when it’s a man cooking and raising kids, it’s dystopia? Oh. Lord. 😂