And I Will Always Love You

 

I have always loved Dolly’s music and I especially loved her 1980 anthem to the plight of underappreciated office workers.

Working Nine to Five. What a way to make a living. They use your mind and they never give you credit. It’s enough to drive you crazy if you let it.

As a young mother, I worked for Estee Lauder alongside the most brilliant, funny, creative women I’ve ever met. (This was after experiencing massive sexism in male-run companies and making the very conscious decision to work for a company run by women).

Still, it was a hustle--out of bed at 5:30 in the morning to write, then waking up my baby daughter to bring her to childcare. Hustling down the subway steps, rattling around in the metal box on the Lexington Line, alighting at 59th Street and running across Lex, Park, Madison, Fifth and then into the GM Building where all the Lauder Girls switched out our sneakers for high heels. Then, we put on our lipstick and got to work at our trusty typewriters.

Perhaps this is what I appreciate the most about Dolly--her work ethic. Here’s what she had to say about a woman’s career:

After you reach a certain age, they think you’re over. Well, I will never be over. I’ll be making records if I have to sell them out of the trunk of my car. I’ve done that in my past, and I’d do it again.

I feel exactly the same way about writing.

So yes, I have always loved Dolly. I admire her can-do spirit as well as her unapologetic feminine-feminism--how she used her womanly charms to disarm the folks who tried to get in her way--how she championed the rights of all people, created her Imagination Library, how she supported scientific research.

She did all this while sporting an over-the top blonde bouffant and really big bosoms--so big that you would think they’d get her way.

They did not get in her way.

Creative Friends--be yourself. Work hard. Keep your sense of humor. And never give up. And like Dolly, I will always love you.

Jamie