"Love is like a butterfly
As soft and gentle as a sigh
The multicolored moods of love are like its satin wings
Love makes your heart feel strange inside
It flutters like soft wings in flight..."
--Dolly Parton, 'Love Is Like a Butterfly' album, 1974
The world mourns the loss of the legendary Dolly Parton, singer, songwriter, actress and philanthropist, who died Tuesday, Aug. 25 in Nashville, Tenn., at age 80.
She spoke our language, she sang our songs, she did her best to help the poor, the forgotten, the targeted and the downtrodden.
Dolly spent her life chasing butterflies, and referenced the insects in her music, clothing and in the logo of her beloved amusement park, Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
In a 2021 interview with W Magazine, she recalled a childhood of wandering in the woods of Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains and chasing butterflies.
"They didn't sting. They didn't bite, and they were so beautiful," she related.
"I just loved them because they were colorful and gentle, and I just kind of related to them with my own personality. I don't want to hurt anybody. Didn't want to bite. Didn't want to sting, and I still don't. I just kind of claimed them as my little symbol."
Perhaps some of them were monarchs?
Dolly proved to be the iconic monarch, universally loved, cherished and idolized. "Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing."
Cover image: A monarch in flight, sky by Ai. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)