You can see I have no supervision because this “medical device company blog” is about Dolly Parton.

At this writing, Dolly passed only yesterday, and social media is buzzing with everyone’s remembrances. When a celebrity passes, the tabloids and news outlets blow up with tearful farewells, glowing accolades, and sometimes a little jealous scandal.

But this time, it’s different. Someone once said, “To the living we owe respect. To the dead we owe only the truth.” It’s a compliment to say that, in Dolly’s case, those two seem to be the same thing.

The author (me) never got the chance to meet Dolly, but as far as I can tell, those who did seemed to have the same impression—that she was exactly what she looked like. Genuine, kind, earthy, and unabashedly herself, whether anybody else liked it or not.

Interesting that someone known for her over-the-top style is also known for her plain-spoken geniality. It makes me wonder how she’ll be remembered, not by billions of us who heard her songs, but by those who knew her personally. It makes me wonder how I’ll be remembered. How any of us will.

My father is a little younger than Dolly was. Our company’s founder is a little older. Both men are still working hard, every day, though my father spends more time puttering around on a tractor than engineering circuits. Regardless, I don’t think either of them spends much time thinking about their legacy. They just do what’s in front of them that seems worthy of doing. Both of them give it everything they have.

Dolly always gave it all she had. So she amassed a fortune. But she donated and built charitable organizations as if her glittering life depended on it. Her father never learned to read and write, so she built her Imagination Library, giving millions of books to kids all over the world, which her father lived to see.

Our founder, Cor Drost, pioneered the medical Flowprobe, which has been used in countless life-saving surgeries for people he will never meet. Is there a strange connection here? I think so.

I once heard Dolly flatly say that Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You,” was much better than Dolly’s own original. Dolly said it with a smile, a warm and congratulatory smile. Dolly Parton seems like the last person who would ever be trying to teach anyone a lesson, but I always had the inkling that there was something she wanted to communicate to her fans, beyond entertainment, even beyond a desire to see the world and its people in the best light.

Come to think of it, I believe I know why my father works so hard, and why our founder also does. I think it’s the same reason that Dolly was kind to everyone, regardless of who they were or how she met them, and the reason she was still going like a runaway stage coach full of glitter and hairspray at age 80…

From the billionaire who wore diamonds and cheap costume jewelry on the same outrageous outfits, I took the following lesson:

It’s not all about me.

Sounds like a strange lesson to garner from the lady with a glamorous showbiz life, right? But don’t forget, she was raised in a two-room farmhouse with no running water and 11 brothers and sisters, 5 of whom lived with her and her husband for a time after she became wealthy.

Maybe I should just go back to writing about Flowprobes and stop dissecting dearest Dolly’s life. We don’t make scalpels after all, surgical or moral. So, from the guy who never met you, you’ll be missed, Dolly. Thanks for charming us for 80 years, and reminding me that what I do—and what you do, dear reader—is worth doing.

Maybe you’ll write a song that will get a Grammy. Maybe you’ll invent a Flowprobe that will save a patient. Maybe you’ll just putter around on a tractor.

As long as it’s really you, you can be happy.

Afterall, Dolly would be.

“Find out who you are, and do it on purpose.”

–Dolly Parton

Thanks for reading,

           Transonic Systems, Inc

                             The Measure of Better Results