August 28, 2026
Hi Reader
This Saturday, my cousins — the same ones we've spent nearly every Fourth of July with when I was young — are coming over. So are my kids, my grandkids, and a handful of close friends. We'll play a round of golf, then fire up the grill for a barbecue.
It's called the Jack Foote Open Golf Tournament, and this will be our third year running it. Jack Foote was my dad. He was a very good golfer - the kind who made it look easy and an even better example of how to enjoy life. A few years ago, we lost him, and pretty quickly my family landed on the golf tournament as the way we wanted to remember him. Not with something somber. With something he'd have loved being at.
This week we also lost someone else who loved life fiercely: Dolly Parton, who passed away at 80.
I know she wasn't family, not in the traditional sense but, so many of us feel like she was. Dolly grew up with real poverty in rural Tennessee, and she never let anyone forget where she came from. She just kept turning it into fuel for giving back. Her Imagination Library has put hundreds of millions of free books into children's hands around the world. After the 2016 Tennessee wildfires, her My People Fund sent direct aid to thousands of families who'd lost everything — fast, and without a paperwork marathon to slow it down.
Two very different lives. A golf-loving father from my own family, and one of the most famous women in the world. But when I think about what actually connects them, it's this: both of them were deeply, stubbornly optimistic. Not the head-in-the-sand kind, my dad was plenty realistic when a situation called for it, and Dolly built an entire philanthropic operation on hard, practical logistics. It's the kind of optimism that doesn't pretend things are easy, but decides to look for the good anyway. And when you're around people like that, you feel it. It's contagious. It brings the smile out of you before you even notice.
I've been thinking about that a lot this week, at a much smaller scale. Not long ago I stopped into a scone shop near me, and the owner told me he loves seeing me come in because I'm always smiling. That's it. That's the whole story. But it's stuck with me ever since, because it's such a simple, almost embarrassingly small way to make someone's day a little better. I didn't do anything. I just showed up the way I try to show up.
You don't need an Imagination Library or a family golf tournament to be that person for someone. You just need to decide, today, to be the version of yourself that makes people glad to see you.
So, here's my invitation this week: notice one place - one person - where your smile might be the best thing that happens to them today. I'd love to hear where you found it. Just hit reply and tell me.
Here's to Saturday, to grilling in my dad's honor, and to a woman from rural Tennessee who proved that a smile and a whole lot of grit can change the world.
Warmly, Wendy
P.S. — If Saturday's tournament produces any good stories (or bad golf shots), I'll probably share them next week.
Quote of the Week
"If you see someone without a smile, give 'em yours." — Dolly Parton
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