This is the introductory essay from this week’s issue of my weekly newsletter, Life Is So Beautiful. The entire newsletter, including links to five things I thought were beautiful, can be found here. – HH
The state motto of North Carolina is Esse Quam Videri, which is Latin, of course and is generally translated as, “To be, rather than to seem.”
To be about it, rather than to talk about it. To be a real one.
I think about that motto a lot. As a native Mississippian, it is much better than our own, which is Virtute et armis, which is Latin for “By valor and arms.” We’re even packing in our state motto, it seems.
But back to North Carolina. Being, rather than seeming. Verbs, rather than nouns.
Dolly Parton died this week. You know that, of course, because the world has gone full on Dolly appreciation, with tributes rolling in from everyone, and from all corners of the globe.
A thing that really struck me is how much they are not talking about Dolly the artist – even though her artistic accomplishments are enough for several lifetimes – but Dolly the person. They talk about her charitable works, her literacy work, her paying for the band kids instruments in Black high schools, the way she treated her employees and her collaborators, what she did with her money, how she stood up for people others would have shamed, how she fought to own her music and her livelihood, how generous she was.
Every single tribute is about what a decent person she was. Much of the good stuff she did is just now coming to light, because it wasn’t publicized, and came with no promotional package.
I have never wept at the death of a celebrity until this week. But I am not alone in this: people who can’t name five Dolly Parton songs were weeping this week because she died.
The best overall obituary I have seen (and I have not seen them all, because they are legion) is this one from Heather Cox Richardson (but also check out the linked article below). Nearly two thousand words eulogizing a great multi-award-winning singer and songwriter and it only names three of the 3,000 songs she wrote.
To be, rather than to seem, indeed.
“Find out who you are. And do it on purpose.” – Dolly Parton