Got a problem? The Dolly Mama is here for you. You can find her by writing us here.
Dear Dolly,
What do you think of supervised injection sites, places where people can use drugs legally and get help if they have an over-reaction or overdose? They have become very popular. Don’t they encourage bad behavior?
Dear Self-appointed Supervisor,
Do you think people who use drugs give a rat’s ass what you think of them? Do you ever get off your high horse and muck out your own barn?
Who taught you that all life had to be good? Did you ever do anything bad? Do you really think it is good to muck around in other people’s lives?
Perhaps you never met my grandfather who snuck cigars in the garage while making fun of his sister-in-law who smoked (and drank) out in the open right in her own dining room at her own table? We kids loved her and mocked him.
Self-righteousness is the only sin Jesus can’t forgive. It is so dis-couraging.
Dear Dolly,
My ten-year-old cat, Fenway, is very fat. He gives new meaning to the word fat cat. When he jumps up on the counter that holds his food dish and his water dish, he sometimes misses and falls on the floor. He never get hurts. He just drops. Splat. He gets up, returns to his launch pad and tries again. Sometimes, he makes his leaps 4 or 5 times per hour, thus his capaciousness. He always gets there.
I keep his food on the counter so the dog doesn’t eat it for him.
I often laugh my head off when he splats. Am I cruel?
Dear Sick Humor,
Do you understand what it means to surround yourself with anthropomorphized animals? We often use our animals to manage our own splats, and this is not a psychiatrist speaking. We let down our guard a little more easily for an animal foible.
Children’s writer Kate DiCamillo says, “…it’s funny that it took forever for this to occur to me, but I grew up (as a sickly child) with a standard poodle named Nanette, and all that sickness that I had, Nanette was my nurse. We always used to say she must’ve been a nurse in a previous life. It was the dog that was up with me in the middle of the night and on the bathroom floor with me, and she really took care of me.
She also calls animals “shortcuts to the heart.” By the way, are you overweight? Do you have trouble getting to your food? Have you ever splatted, in public or in private? Did you laugh with yourself like you laugh with your cat? I hope so.
Projection is not just something put up on the wall. It’s inside, too.
Dolly
Who is the Dolly Mama?
The Dolly Mama is a spiritual version of Dear Abby. Her intention is to combine the irreverence of Dolly Parton with the surrender and non-attachment beloved by Buddhists. She wants to let go of what can’t be fixed – in either self or others – and fix what can by applying the balm of humor.
She is a spiritual handyperson, a soul mechanic, a repairer of broken appliances. Every now and then the combination of letting go and hanging on achieves sufficient balance for an improvement in spiritual posture, stronger spine, and personal peace. The Dolly Mama is not her day job. By day, she works as an ordained United Church of Christ and American Baptist pastor of a regular, if edgy, congregation.
