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I saw one firefly this evening, and stopping to watch it made me think about how much our idea of “normal” changes over time. One generation remembers hundreds. The next remembers dozens. A child sees only a few and thinks that is summer. Ecologists call this shifting baseline syndrome. Sometimes loss happens twice: first in nature, then in memory.

Maeve Kiley explores how Dolly Parton’s Appalachian roots shaped her music, philanthropy, and environmental advocacy. Known as the “Smoky Mountain Songbird,” Parton supported wildlife conservation, protected native habitats, and assisted communities affected by natural disasters, leaving a legacy rooted in compassion for the land, wildlife, and people of the Great Smoky Mountains.

National Animal Rights Week asks us to confront a painful contradiction: animals are loved, honored, and remembered, yet too often treated as expendable. From Ahimsa to Mitákuye Oyás'iŋ, many traditions teach that animals are not objects, but living relations worthy of protection, dignity, and care.