How Y'all Doing? Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived

by Leslie Jordan

“Happiness is a choice. Happiness is a habit. And happiness is something you have to work hard at. It does not just happen.”

I’m more along the lines of a Dolly Parton. What you see is what you get!

I learned one of life’s biggest lessons: true happiness can only come from being “of loving service to others.”

The world is a better place for having Dolly Parton in it. And I, personally, want to emulate her. I want to live a life where no one can say a bad word about me. Because I have never heard a bad word about Dolly. Folks may or may not like me, but they certainly will not be able to denigrate me. Because I plan to live my life asking myself constantly, “Well, what would Dolly do?” * * *

It was as if they could not figure me out. I was not the butchest little boy to come down the pike, that’s for sure. But I was a joyful child. I was fun to be around. And I had learned to be really funny. I learned to be funny to keep the bullies at bay. But apparently, most little boys did not act the way I acted. At least that was what I read in their faces when grown men gave me the once-over.