Journal of Sacred Work

Days 109-113 - When Water Falls

  We began life in Water's womb. Her waves, or lakes, her streams are poems. Especially when water falls. 

    The link below takes you to a brief meditation on waterfalls including a poem that I wrote & narrated in the hope it would bring some serenity to your life. 

   May you enjoy the peace that a marriage to the water can bring. 

   Click on the link below:

https://youtu.be/MJZx5eNThng

-Erie Chapman

Photograph by Erie from "When Water Falls" includes image of me with my mother.

When a Doctor Kills A Patient

The Lightning Strike

October 7, 1977. Mary Kopek* checked into Toledo's Riverside Hospital** for a routine hysterectomy.

Easy to imagine the morning of October 8: Nurses awakening Mary at dawn, preparations for surgery, family smiling, "We'll see you soon."

Instead, "soon" Mary would die on the operating table.

Why? Did her anesthesiologist accidentally kill her?

1977. The Mafia-like "White Coat Code of Silence" meant doctors did not "squeal." Mary's husband and small children would never know.  

Caregivers understand the separate pathways for food and air. To confuse those during intubation can be fatal. Yet, Anesthesiologist Hector Gomez, M.D.* made exactly that mistake.

As the surgeon's scalpel hovered over Mary's belly, Dr. Gomez inserted the oxygen tube down her throat...into the esophagus. Air meant for her lungs now raced toward her stomach.

Seeing Mary's belly inflate, an OR nurse exclaimed, “Doctor, the tube is in the wrong hole!”

“Nonsense. I’m the doctor!” Gomez said arrogantly.

Belatedly, the surgeon noticed the nurse was right. “Pull the tube, Hector!” he ordered.

Lightning ignited crisis! Mary's children would grow up without her. 

Aftermath

Hours later CNO Marian Hamm walked into my office with a blunt account: “Erie, Dr. Gomez just killed a patient.”

Although thirty-three and just months as CEO, I knew leaders have no luxury for excuses.  

"I'll tell the Chief of Staff," I responded.

"The White Coat Code," she said with disgust. "He won't act."

Still, I insisted the Chief investigate. Weeks later, reported, “Dr. Gomez says: "Patient overweight. Short neck. Case closed."

"Really?" I challenged. "Is that it?"

"We'll keep an eye on him," he glared.

"Told you," Marian said later.

Incompetence and Arrogance killed Mary Kopek. The Chief's closing the case and my refusal to persist describes the culture of 1977.

After that, I learned to fight harder. Much harder.

If you are a veteran caregiver, you have seen bad mistakes and will see more. Would your stories help others in crises?

-Erie Chapman

Excepted from: After the Lightning –  Stories of Crisis Leadership 

*Pseudonyms 

**Since reopened as St. Ann’s

The Quarterback, the Comedian & Superbowl XIII*

 How do leaders find calm and caring in crisis? Legendary leaders are universal students even though Winston Churchill said, "I'm always ready to learn, although I don't always like being taught."

  Still, he always watched how others fielded crises. Churchill would never say, "I can't learn from a conductor because I'm not a musician." or, "I can't learn from sports. I hate sports." 

Joe & John

   A comical learning occurred at Superbowl XIII when iconic quarterback Joe Montana, using five words only heard by ten men, suddenly made famous comedian John Candy a team member!

   January 22, 1989. Cincinnatti Bengals versus San Francisco 49ers (a fellow Ohioan gave me tickets.)

   3:10 to go. Bengals up 16-13. 49ers have possession but on their own 8-yard line. 

   A 49er said later, "Unbearable tension...92 yards to pay dirt? Impossible...Then Joe entered the huddle." 

   Stop! What would you say? 

1.    "Stay calm."
2.    "Here's the play."
3.    "Don't panic."

   Instead, Joe pointed to the crowd. "Hey, isn't that John Candy?" 

   It worked. He knew his players were scared and how to settle them. With 39 seconds left, he fired the victory pass.

   Forever after, Montana was known as, "Joe Cool," underscored when Bengal's opponent Chris Collinsworth reported, "At the 45 yard line I saw Joe's eyes. I knew we were finished."

The eyes.

    Ten years later I re-learned the power of calm eyes. Baptist Hospital System's accountants delivered a fear-triggering shock shortly after I became CEO. I had been told the bottom line would be 10 million. The hidden truth was a $73 million loss! Bankruptcy was imminent.

   "Are you okay?" Chief Operating Officer Paul Moore asked me mid-crisis.

   "Yes. Why?"

    "Some employees told me, 'We saw Mr. Chapman walking through the cafeteria looking worried."

   Darn it! Other expressions besides panic can signal trouble.Leaders never have the luxury of showing fear or worry.

   The great news? A record-breaking turnaround. That story later.

-Erie Chapman

*This story will reappear in my forthcoming book currently titled, After the Lightning - Stories of Crisis Leadership

**Photo: Joe Montana and John Candy (Outkick)

How You Can Honor Caregivers Who Died

The finest twenty minutes on Television occurs each year's end when "CBS Sunday Morning" honors the famous among us who have left us.

   2024 was Quincy Jones' last year on this orb. If you remember his genius, including his production of "We Are the World,"* it was because you were among the millions joining hands and voices for a few moments of unity in 1985.

   James Earl Jones acting lit up the screen (e.g. Field of Dreams.) His stirring bass announced CNN and voiced a powerful cartoon caregiver, Mufasa and Mufasa's ghost in the Lion King. Now a "ghost" himself, he can still comfort us.  

   As I write this news comes of the passing of the peanut farmer who became President. Jimmy Carter was a loving soul whose leadership won him a Nobel Peace Prize and, post Presidency, brought us Habitat for Humanity. 

   Missing from the list, of course, are a million humble caregivers worldwide who passed away. They spent their careers easing our pain, delivering our babies, bringing us curing medications and healing us with their presence as co-workers. 

   If one of them is someone you knew, please reference them in a comment, below (your email will NOT appear.) That will honor their name to hundreds who read this column each week and help us remember all who spent their careers dedicated to meeting need with love. 

-Erie Chapman

*Co-written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie 

The Universal Santa

  My earliest friend appeared in 1946 when, at three, I met my neighbor, Jill. We are still friends! (1951 photo by my dad)

   Because her family had a Christmas tree and gave presents, I did not know she was Jewish until about eight - or even what that meant.

   Christians, raised like I, childishly thought that our holiday, bearing our savior's name, must be the best. Even Jill's Jewish family celebrated "our" holiday. Therefore our religion must be superior.

   Then at twelve, we moved from L.A. to Toledo, My new best friend, Greg. was Catholic.    

   "You're going to hell," he said before Christmas.

   "What?"

   "Only Catholics get heaven,"* he said confidently. 

   "You mean being Methodist is not enough?" 

   "Nope," he said.  

   Greg was a year older and I looked up to him. It was like he was saying, "If you don't believe in Santa, no presents!"

   I asked my Mom. "Oh, those Catholics," she said dismissively. 

   When we moved to Nashville ("The Buckle on the Bible Belt") a hospital board member shook my hand, leaned in and asked in a loud whisper, "You're a good Christian, right?"

   "I'm trying," I answered, "and since you're a Christian,  how are you doing praying for your enemies?"

   His laugh signaled he did not take that teaching seriously. 

   Today, as an ordained minister, I follow Jesus and his teachings. Many Christians believe that Jesus spoke literally when he said, "You can only come to God through me." 

   My deepest belief is that God is Love for all, not just Christians. Why would a non-Christian who lives love go to hell?

   Love is the universal Santa. A patient's religion plays no role in treatment. Living love assures a sacred and magical holiday. 

   Merry Christmas from my family (including our five grandkids) to you and yours.

-Rev. Erie Chapman

Photo: 5 Grandchildren - by Tia Chapman. 

   

  

A Double Drowning: Lightning Leadership During Trailing Thunder

When and how are crisis behaviors learned? Childhood experiences are early teachers. 

Balboa, California, Summer, 1951 Dad and I (pictured in 1949) strolled with my little sister along its beach. Suddenly, "lightning" struck. A pair of unconscious teens was being dragged from the water.

A crowd gathered. The boys, blue-faced, were dropped on towels. 

“They’ve drowned,” someone said. 

My seven-year-old heart was racing. Was anyone going to do anything?

Everyone just stood there except one.

“Watch out for your sister!” Dad ordered. Racing forward, he cradled one boy, then looked up at the crowd.

“You,” he commanded another adult. “Take the other boy and copy what I’m doing.”

The startled man obeyed.

No CPR back then. My father used the “Holger-Neilsen Rescue Method.” Riveted, I watched him turn the dying boy onto his stomach, lean his own body weight forward, and push down rhythmically on the boy’s back. No response.

  “Keep at it,” dad called to his partner. So the other man persisted.

  Amid the thundering crisis, lightning struck again. The dead boy coughed up volumes of water, and opened his eyes.

   “Okay?” dad asked raising him up.

   “Yes,” he sputtered.

A miracle! I thought. Death into life.

The other boy was still “out.” Dad rushed over, eased the other helper aside, continued life saving to complete a second miracle.

Without dad, the boys would have died.

---

The lightning of that crisis struck the crowd equally. In the trailing thunder only dad stepped forward. Only he found the courage to lead.

Head of the Hollywood YMCA and already my hero, he had shared other stories of life saving. I had never seen him do it.

Many freeze in post-crises thunder. My father showed me, again, what leadership looked - including with his final act that day.

“Let’s go, kids” he said, leading us offstage.

As we walked away, I studied the bystanders. No one patted my hero father on the back. He did not need that. 

Humility, common in caregivers, rare among leaders, needs no applause.

-Erie Chapman, III

The Day I Won The Lottery

 

Naturally, I recall that day's anticipatory joy.

   The memory evokes a seven centuries old sentence: Dante's opening to, The Divine Comedy,*: “Midway along the journey of our life I woke to find myself in a dark wood, for I had wandered off from the straight path."

   The sentence matters because we wonder: "Where am I in my life?" Or, when older, "Where have I been?"

   In the middle of my life I won the lottery. No dark wood but a sunlit dream.  Greeks coined such epiphanies Anagnorisis**

   The day the prize was delivered, July 1, 1983. At thirty-nine, I walked through the doors of not just any hospital, but Riverside Methodist, the largest in Ohio. I was too immature to imagine the depth of the victories ahead including becoming a top ten hospital and reshaping RMH into a flagship as founding president of OhioHealth.

   Thousands of other caregivers walked through those same doors. I was their CEO. What an incredible privilege it was...and remains so to this day.

   Ten years later, my son said: "Dad! You are at the top of your career!" Still not getting it, I told him, "No. I must go higher."

   Such ambition blocked my grasping that good luck in the moment. Yes. There were more successes, mixed with agonizing personal defeats. Yet, my son was right. 

   Some say in the middle of their lottery-winning days, "Thank God it's Friday." Or, "I can't wait until retirement." 

   If you are any level caregiver today and hear yourself wanting "out" you have "wandered off the path" or are under-appreciating your riches. Each day you awake in the middle of your chance to help heal others.

   Realizing your calling is better than winning the lottery because it is a lifetime gift. I finally appreciate that. We tried our best to help thousands. And did.    

-Erie Chapman

Photo: Riverside 2024 and circa 1980s

*Also contains Dante's Inferno describing the nine circles of hell. 

**Anagnorisis a moment in a play...when a character makes a critical discovery...recognition not only of a person but also of what that person [or moment] stood for. 

Radical Hope Starts With Reality

 "Hope starts with reality," Dr. Clay Stauffer intoned, "and Fear is a bad advisor."

   I would have said, "No. Dreams father Hope." Clay is right. The launchpad for dreams is made of concrete. 

   Hope and Fear dominate most lives.    

   Easy to hope if we are healthy and safe. How could cancer's reality bring buoyancy? What about betrayal? What about any loss, especially when hopes for national unity seem distant?

   No depressed person says, "I feel so hopeful." When flattened by life, optimism was as unattainable for me as Pluto.

   Radical Loving Care^® ("Radical," meaning love beyond expectations) encompasses radical hope. Both live outside the box.   

   Caregivers know what once startled me. That many cancer say, "It was the best thing that ever happened to me."

   Miles* (pictured), a profoundly mature 20 year-old also surprised me recently by reporting, "My parent's divorce was one of the best things in my life."

   These radical hopers found joyful surprises beyond the box. How?

   The cancer survivor said, "I learned fearlessness." Miles (pictured) acquired "two great new step-parents and three siblings."

   These two show us the path to Life's fountainhead: Hope. 

-Erie Chapman

*Miles Chapman, my oldest grandson - 9/23

  

Does A Hospital Leader Matter?

     A month before I departed as CEO of Riverside Methodist Hospital (RMH) and OhioHealth, questions arose about new leadership. As a lame duck CEO, I was powerless to delay layoffs initiated despite the system's booming bottom line and sky-high morale.

    I asked a doctor his thoughts.

   "Not sure the leader matters that much, Erie," he said.

   Months later a colleague called, "Did you hear about Marcy?"

   "No, how is she?" I answered.

   A thirty-year veteran, Marcy Alton* (pictured) whose HR role was organizing events, was one of RMH's most well-loved employees. Her perpetual smile raised everyone's energy. 

   "She was fired," my friend reported.

   "What?" I said.

   "It gets worse. Several employees saw security escorting her to her car. Staff-cut," he said with disgust. "Every eliminated employee is escorted to their car."

   "If they treat Marcy like that, what about me?" staff wondered. Instead of saving money, the bottom line went down as did patient/employee satisfaction.   

   Culture determines behavior. Leaders determine culture. Only the board can remove them. Staff, including doctors, have no vote. 

   Sadly, this story returned eight years later. As I prepared to turn over the reins of Nashville's Baptist Hospital System** to a new President, a neonatologist saw my dismay.

   "Don't worry," she said. The leader doesn't make much difference."

   "What about workplace culture?" I asked

    She shrugged. And was wrong.

   Once again, my successor needlessly cut staff. Once again, satisfaction scores and finances tailed down. 

   Like it or not, every leader, like every parent, store owner, coach and President, impacts energy. Radical Loving Care^® matters. 

   We ignore that truth at our peril. 

-Erie Chapman

*Marcella "Marcy" Alton (1948-2020.) I told her story in 2021 and retell it today.

**Renamed St. Thomas Midtown

NOTE: Please support our mission of loving care via http://www.eriechapmanfoundation.net  or by check to Erie Chapman Foundation, 112 Dunham Springs Lane, Nashville. 

   

Change or Revelation?

   Near the end of a long and unusual career, it is affirming when caregivers say, "Erie, you changed my life. You discovered a strength I didn't recognize."

   Today, I realized those two sentences signal very different processes. The first implies "changing" another. The second honors what was already there. 

   The second approach rings truest today.   

   Kirsten, my profoundly encouraging wife of 58 years, elicits my best. Her ability to expose my weaknesses highlights better paths. 

   The best aspects of parenting our children Tyler and Tia, honored their potential. Luckily, that offset some mistakes. 

   We are grateful rather than proud of them and the parents they became.  We did not change them. We encouraged. 

   Good leaders, like OhioHealth's first HR Senior VP Mark Evans, mirror good parenting. He focused his team's energy on strengths rather fault-finding. 

   For years, I have campaigned for leadership that catalyzes positive powers. This Journal contrasted this Presidential campaign's leadership styles as a learning for all leaders.

   In fact, this election taught a huge lesson I did not foresee. 

   President-elect Trump, the same leader who incited a mob to stop the Senate from certifying his loss, recognized that America's frustration was not a trickle but a raging river. He opened the floodgates for Americans, who were "mad as hell and wouldn't take it any more!"*

   Anger's energy can be converted for good. What Trump does with the immense resource of American's frustration is far more important than winning the election.

   Will he lead like President Theodore Roosevelt who saw the potential of America's natural resources and founded our national parks. Or, had he been President then, would Trump have envisioned the Grand Canyon as a real estate development?

   Will he change our lives by revealing our best, like Lincoln, or incite our worst like Jefferson Davis**? 

-Erie Chapman

Photo: National Park Service/M. Quinn

*Paraphrase from "Network" (1976) 

**President of the Confederacy

 

      

Charity Toward All, Revenge, or Bless Them, Change me?

I. "Bless them, change me"

   My friend, perfectly named Ed Goodrich, changed my life today. He knows my distress amid our national leadership crises and how it may impact caregivers.  

   "There's a four word phrase that could help," he said. "When insulted, pray: 'Bless them, change me.'" 

   Instantly, I felt better. No more saying "I'll pray for you." That sounds like I'm asking my God to change your "wrong" into my "right." Bless you. Change me. 

   Beware of political brain fog. Because we support Trump or Harris does mean we ARE either. 

II."With charity toward all"

Cursing fellow Americans while refusing to practice love can be deadly.

  "We are not enemies, but friends," our most admired President told 25,000. "We must not be enemies," he begged; passion may strain friendships, but, "it must not break our bonds of affection."

   Listen to "the better angels of [y]our nature," Abraham Lincoln implored.

   The crowd agreed and fatally failed to heed.

   It was March 4, 1861. Just thirty-nine days later, April 12, 1861, Confederate soldiers fired on Fort Sumter. Deafness to the new President's appeal triggered the most tragic display of homicidal idiocy in American history.

   March 4, 1865, precisely four years later, a victorious and heartbroken Lincoln, appealed once more to the best angels among his 40,000 listeners. Millions had died or suffered other unspeakable loss. Northerners wanted what men's darkest demons always seek: Revenge. 

   Lincoln, would have none of it. "With malice toward none, with charity for all" he told the startled crowd "...let us bind up the nation's wounds, care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan...do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace..."

  April 14, 1865 the calendar again tolled tragedy. Four years and two days after Rebels fired canon balls into Fort Sumter, a revenge-poisoned Rebel fired a single bullet into the head of our finest President.  Lincoln had joined the list of the Civil War dead.

III. "Ultimate and absolute revenge"?

  The same revenge-devil that poisoned Lincoln's assassin now darkens the voice of former President Trump. Increasingly over recent days he has repeatedly promised "ultimate and absolute revenge" against anyone, including Republicans, who opposed him. The list grows by the hour and now includes not just Harris and Pelosi but numerous former members of his own cabinet. A few days ago, he said former Republican Congressman Liz Cheney, should be "shot in the face" by a 9-person firing squad.  

   Will we choose a champion of "Charity toward all" or break "the bonds of affection" by choosing an advocate of violence by Americans against Americans?

   Yes. Trump remains a child of God. May God's blessing quiet hate from both sides, and change us. 

   Meanwhile, why wait for leaders to unite us? Regardless of party, why not heed the voices of our better angels?

-Reverend Erie Chapman, M.T.S., J.D. 

 

   

 

Can Hope Conquer Fear?

   Every patient wants from every caregiver confidence and hope. Every caregiver seeks the same from every leader.

   During my many years leading Riverside Methodist, founding OhioHealth, leading Baptist Hospital System and several other healthcare organizations this has always been my goal. Strategies unfold from caring about caregivers and the work they do and building cultures that sustain that.

   Leadership is sacred work. Trump's approach is threatening to undermine this kind of leadership. 

   How does a leader impact your energy?

   March 4, 1933. 91 years ago. Imagine it today. Americans were terrified. The stock market crash and Great Depression meant America was drowning in an insidious disease: Fear. 

   On that day, President Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) delivered a massive dose of what every American required to cure Fear. Hope. 

   One line rings Hope's bell today: "The only thing we have to fear," FDR intoned, "is fear itself." 

   FDR's energy exudes from the 45 second video. As he spoke I imagine "Fear itself" shrinking. (click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjhPozIeyoY )

   Across the sea Germans, drowning in the same Depression, heard the opposite. Hitler's message: Germany is falling apart. Only I can save you!

   Sound familiar? In 2016 Trump, painted an America in ruins (he still does) and declared, "I alone can fix it."

   In 1933, Fear found a foe in America and an ally in Germany. In 2024, Fear found a criminal ally in America - Donald Trump. Hope found Kamala Harris. 

  "America is strong. I believe in us," Kamala Harris says, like Reagan, Obama, Clinton & most Presidents before. 

   Harris is Hope and Love. Trump is Fear and Hate. 

   Experts say fear is more powerful. Prove them wrong. 

   Cowards prefer bullies.The courageous always choose hope.

   Good leaders always bring out the best in us. Bad ones elicit the worst. 

   If Trump wins, I will, like Kamala, still lean into love...And dread the firehose of hate, lies and fear-mongering he will pour on our country.   

   Should Kamala win, Hope will make "A Comeback.

   That is what happens when Presidents lead with love. 

-Erie Chapman

Poster: Artist unknown

    

News Flash! You Can Leave Your Presidential Ballot Option Blank!

   The two wildly contrasting pictures share an odd relationship. The first is from the riveting opening scene of World War II film "The Resistance Fighter." It shows a mother, arms around her 6-year-old, shivering in both snow and the fascist presence of a Nazi officer. 

   "There is only one right way!" the officer shouts at her. "Pick!"

   "I don't understand," the young mother stammers.

   "We will decide by a coin flip," the officer says, as the mother realizes she must choose Hitler* or be shot.

   The second image is just a snapshot of me playing peek-a-boo with my mom. But it is from the same time period, 1944!

   I sat safe because Americans had chosen democracy and were fighting to save it. Millions of other children sat terrified because Germany had chosen a fascist, Hitler.  

  On October 22, Trump's longest serving Chief of Staff, Marine General John Kelly told The New York Times, "Trump fits the definition of a fascist."** 

  Meanwhile, I discovered a flaw in counting "undecideds." I kept hearing Republicans complain about Trump but thought they had to vote for him.

  Finally, I asked one: "Why not leave the top spot blank?" 

  "If I could, I would!" he answered.

   "You can," I said. "So, you will!"

   Over the past two weeks, I found ten more college-educated men who mistakenly thought you had to check a box for each race. One was also fuzzy about what fascism meant.**

   After I explained it he laughed, "Now, I can say I didn't vote for the fascist!"

   He joins seven more of that ten who will leave the top spot blank. Could there be more?

   Americans currently face no punishment for their voting choice. Millions living under dictators today do not have that luxury. 

   Trump's handling of COVID and his false FEMA conspiracy theories threatened caregiver-safety. This tells me Harris is best. Others now know another choice: neither. 

 -Erie Chapman

*"VP Nominee, Sen. J.D. Vance has previously called Trump, "America's Hitler." 

**"Under fascism, a government ruled by a dictator controls the lives of the people in that society, and allows no dissent or disagreement." - Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

NOTE: Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump, General Mark Milley, agrees with Kelly. 

 

 

The Perfect Crimes? So What!

 "If the Democratic Party wants to stand with anarchists, agitators, rioters, looters, and flag-burners, that is up to them, but I, as your president, will not be a part of it. We must always have law and order." -Trump speech at the 2020 Republic National Convention.

   Law and order? Trump hopes we give up and ignore his crimes.

   After becoming a hospital CEO, I was surprised by how many hospital leaders commit "perfect crimes."  Some CEO's, Vice Presidents and prominent doctors get away with taking kickbacks or escaping sexual assault charges or embezzling money, and more.

   As a federal prosecutor in the 1970's I saw criminals every day. But hospital leaders? How could they get away with crimes?

   Not hard if the facts are ignored. 

   I remember my debut trial. "Not guilty" the foreman pronounced to a shocked judge, me, and even the defendant's own attorney. 

   A bigger shock came when the jurors said later. "Sure, he did it. So what?," one mentioned. "It was just a bomb threat," scoffed another. "He's a kid (19)." 

   The "kid" committed a perfect crime because jurors ignored the facts. Lawyers call it: "Jury nullification."

   Recently, I asked you to be a leader deciding if you would hire someone with a serial criminal background. Now, you are a juror. 

   Americas will soon deliver a verdict in the world's most important case:  Which candidate will lead the free world?

   If you choose the former President you must ignore his conviction on 34 felony counts, his liability for rape, his guilt for bank fraud, and the four other major criminal cases pending against him. 

   One is Election Fixing. After the votes showed a Biden victory, Trump called Georgia's Republican Secretary of State (pictured) and ordered him to, "Find me 11,880 votes!"  

   January 6, 2021 is now among the darkest days in American Constitutional history. The former President faces obstruction of justice and other crimes for agitating the rioters looters, and flag-defacers. Over 1200 other participants have been charged and 750 convicted. 

   If elected, Trump's pardons will free him of everything possible and release hundreds of January 6 convicts. Law and order?

   Detectives seek a criminal's "MO" (modus operandi.) We know Trump's con game. 

   He wants to commit the perfect crimes on the biggest stage possible and then sneer, "Gotcha!"

   Will you think "So What" and let him get away with it? 

-Erie Chapman

Hope and Joy or...?

   Some people spark such hope in our hearts that even a glance at a picture of them brings instant joy. That is what happens when I see this image of my wife and daughter on my son's porch. 

   As an executive coach I challenge leaders with this question: What is the impact of your presence on others? When you "round" in your hospitals, does energy go up, down or sideways?

   Leaders set the tone. Hope or fear? Confidence or chaos?

   Radical Loving Leadership means taking care of the people who take care of people by being "tough-minded and tender-hearted."*

    Some leaders disagree. "I want my staff to fear me," the CNO at Baptist Hospital told me when I arrived as CEO. "Otherwise, they won't obey me."

   "We can't build a caring culture by scaring caregivers," I told her. She quit.   

   This story is why I feel so strongly about America's leadership. We cannot be a great and loving nation with a bullying Presidential candidate who arrogantly threatens that only he can save what he calls "our failing nation." 

   Policy aside, choosing hope and love matter. Our top-ranked Presidents: Roosevelt, Reagan, Clinton, Obama raised America's energy. Trump, now ranked our worst President, lowered it. Every Presidential expert now ranks Trump as our worst President.

   Lincoln preached "malice toward none."  The former President preaches malice toward all.

   Vice President Harris champions peace and progress. Trump promises chaos and doom. 

   He calls his opponent a "mentally ill, radical Communist," while preaching the odd idea that democracy needs him as "a dictator on day one." His disastrous resume of bankruptcies, felonies and fraud convictions features dangerous election denialism.  He tells women, "I am your protector" thinking they will overlook his own predator's record of serial sexual assaults. 

  How can we tell when Trump is lying? Every time his lips are moving. 

  Do we really want more chaos from a new President bent on revenge? Another "January 6"? Or someone who will lead us forward? 

  I admire and respect people that lift us up. Like that pair of women above do.

-Erie Chapman

*Martin Luther King

   

 

Both Sides Now

You know Joni Mitchell's song: "I looked at clouds from both sides now..." She sings delicious childhood images. 

"Rows and floes of angel hair/ And ice cream castles in the air/ And feather canyons everywhere/ I've looked at clouds that way."

If you were a dreamy child you remember when you could see clouds as "ice cream castles." You carried those dreams into kindergarten and immediately noticed you had to figure out how to act and checked other kids for cues. Mostly, they looked at the biggest adult in the room.

What is right or wrong? Check the teacher. 

Culture determines much of our behavior. Every hospital caregiver knows that leaders determine culture. 

While running three hospital systems a key decision was picking a team to advance Radical Loving Care. The first leaders I let go were bullies. We want loving caregivers. Not scared ones. 

Interviews and background checks are crucial. Hiring fast and wrong causes pain.

Try this hypothetical: Someone you interview for leadership previously held a huge title and was fired.  His resume says, "Convicted of fraud, liable for rape, a chronic liar, never admits mistakes, routinely insults people, disloyal, chronic womanizer, degrades women and immigrants..." 

You like some of his views so you check references. A flood of letters from top people who worked directly with him say they liked his policies but now believe he is "incompetent," "unstable," "dangerous," and "should not be hired for anything."

Would you hire him? 

No! But some change their mind when I say, "That's Donald Trump's resume."

If you think I'm getting political, would you want Trump running your hospital? This is about supporting loving leadership for caregivers!

"What signal does it send to every healthcare leader in our country if we endorse a bully for our highest office?"

Is one of us chasing an illusion the way Joni Mitchell started to see clouds? "...now old friends are acting strange/ They shake their heads, they say I've changed/ Well something's lost, but something's gained/ In living every day."

What wisdom have we "gained" with cloud games or life experience? Is Joni talking to me when she ends: "It's life's illusions I recall/ I really don't know life at all."

I still believe leadership character matters. Especially in this election. Do you? If not, maybe "I really don't know life at all."

-Erie Chapman

-Album cover: Both Sides Now 

 

"The Complete Book of Caregiving"

Like any good poem, joke or aphorism, the best cartoons say so much with so little. Thank you New Yorker cartoonist, "Warp,"*  Thank you, older-but-looks-younger sister, Ann, for spotting this and sending it with the note: "Right down your alley, Chip" (my nickname.)

If there is more to say, it would be that empathy for caregivers is why this Journal is dedicated to you. At its best, we feature stories that honor your sacrifices and help the general public understand why you might become deeply tired.

Every job can generate fatigue. The best caregivers experience many layers of exhaustion. Beyond the physical comes the cascading emotional toll on those that deliver Radical Loving Care^®. 

One story highlights a solo caregiver's challenge: loneliness. My brother-in-law, Chris Lokvam, now suffers with a Parkinson's-like condition that renders him paralyzed and imprisoned in a chair 24-hours a day. His wife is the single caregiver 95% of the time.

Imagine Jackie's life through the lens of this heart-searing specific: She is called on every 20 minutes of every hour, day and night, to rise and reposition Chris or help him "shuffle" a few feet. 

Sure, she could write a book were she not profoundly exhausted down to the bone.

Thank you Jackie. Thank you Mr. Warp, for helping caregivers smile by wrapping a powerful truth inside a brilliant cartoon.

-Erie Chapman

*Educational Use copyright exception

**Yes. We are part of a family and friends effort to secure help for Jackie and Chris. 

 

Finding Joy in Mixed "Realities"?

An advantage of early childhood is fantastical thinking. Santa, for example. Encroaching adulthood explodes those fantasies. 

I once found it peaceful to imagine a Christmas where Santa Claus' sleigh glided through the night sky overflowing with presents. If you thought like that, did you feel tricked when you found out there was no Santa? 

That news struck me hard enough so that, at 8, I asked my dad, "If Santa is fake, what about God?"

In my artwork, I've been creating fantastical "worlds" ever since. It is a way to reclaim joy.

Surreal art, where recognizable things are rearranged and fantasized, can open new pathways to peace. I made a mixed media video  for you ((revised from a prior posting) using sites like rain falling on roses and the glorious back yard of a rich Massachusetts estate* in ways I hope bring you delight.

Click Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOzbblQIXdk

-Erie Chapman

*The Crain Estate (altered), now open to the public. 

What Sparked Joy Today?

“Many of us have made our world so familiar that we do not see it anymore," the great John O'Donohue writes.

He adds a delightful challenge: "An interesting question to ask yourself at night is, What did I really see this day?”

Ever since, the energy in my always searching eyes has been even more alert to sudden moments that spark joy.

One struck today. A new friend fell from the sky into my eyes. He appeared first as a flame, acrobating the air as a tip of lightning. Then a flying leaf. Finally, a brilliant, solid yellow butterfly.

Botanists call them "yellow sulfur" butterflies. I call them sparks of joy.

Odd as it sounds coming from a tough, 80-year old former trial lawyer and hospital CEO who spent his career in florescent-lit battlefields, this little fellow with the always sun-drenched wings, who flitted by and vanished in a second, did something for me. He sparked joy.

When I slip into bed tonight and ask myself "What did I really see this day?" my dashing flash of a yellow friend will again ignite light in my heart.

Click here to see a 30 second video I made for you from online clips. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=926j-8DbyyM

What sparked joy for you today?  

-Erie Chapman

The blurry pictures and video YouTube prove that these beings are, well, sparks. 

Does Blame Block Forgiveness?

Every caregiver encounters them. "Bedpan throwers," are a great test to professionalism.

Is it similar for parents with an "unruly" child? Problem children suck an enormous amount of family energy. The following sounds common but is unusually dramatic. 

Nearly six decades ago, two of our oldest friends introduced us to their beautiful children, "James" and "Johnny." James grew up well-behaved and successful. Johnny? A nightmare. 

Johnny became a drug addict. Horrified, his parents poured enormous resources into interventions and professional help.

They continued to flood both sons with love. Especially Johnny because, as his mom said, "He seemed to need so much more love while James was fine."

Across decades, Johnny whiplashed in and out of rehab and jail. Like the father in "The Prodigal Son," they forgave but tried to be firm. 

Al-Anon advised, "Keep your prodigal son at a loving distance." But, Johnny had a fatal gift: huge charm.

One Christmas Eve, he showed up unexpectedly. "I'm so sorry, mom and dad. May I join you?"

Swallowing hard, both parents said, "No." Yet, Johnny's charm prevailed. They had a happy evening.

Christmas' dawn delivered a shock. Johnny had stolen one of their cars and all their credit cards. 

One afternoon, the nightmare reached a conclusion. When Johnny's mom drove to check on him he was dead of a drug overdose.

Long before, Johnny's mother had found peace through a crucial understanding. "I forgave Johnny repeatedly. But, I could not forgive myself," she says, "until one day I realized: "Blame blocks forgiveness for me as well as him."

When a caregiver stops blaming a patient, a co-worker or anyone else, relief flows both way.  

-Erie Chapman

Painting: "The Prodigal Son," Pompeo Batoni, 1773

What's in the Frame?

One of Nashville's most delightful locations is unconnected to country music. Cheekwood Gardens' 55 acres are flooded with an astonishing array of every kind of flower, plant and tree. Walk the forest behind its 30,000 square foot mansion and you will be greeted every so often by a world class sculpture.

The thing that fascinates me most, though, is not the framed paintings inside the mansion or the gardens without. It is a single empty gold frame. 

What is in the frame? Nothing...or everything. The blank space symbolizes what we cherish, Possibility, and thrills her companion, Imagination. 

Frames fascinate. They focus our attention and lend instant importance to their contents. Empty frames long for fulfillment. 

Artists see possibilities others miss. Among zillions of canvases and wood panels I sometimes wonder about one. It is 21" x 30" and once laid on a table in a 16th century Florence studio.

Blank it was worth a few cents. One day it was struck by lightning. A genius touched it. Today the DaVinci's "Mona Lisa" is visited by millions and is worth billions.

The years we have lived are already painted and framed. The years ahead? A blank canvas.

Paint them with love everyday and you will fashion masterpieces worth far more than that mysterious face framed at the Louvre. That is what caregivers do.  

That is what you can still do!

-Erie Chapman

*Many years ago, I saw the Mona Lisa in person along with hundreds of others and noticed something strange. There were a couple dozen other masterpieces hanging on adjoining walls: All beautiful. Each ignored. 

**And Leonardo's masterpiece was painted on a white poplar wood panel.