There is a saying in most of the world’s cultures that males are raised to tell stories. This doesn’t mean that men are better story-tellers. It simply suggests that story telling – joke telling in particular – is, for many, part of being raised male.
I’ve wondered why this is true (if it is) and have concluded that part of the reason is competition. If I tell a joke to a mixed group, one of the males is sure to follow it with, "Well have you heard the one about…" And this is intended to set off a can-you-top-this pattern of exchanges.
My dad was the story-teller in my family. My mother would read to us as children. But my dad would make up his own stories. The same was true with my mother’s father. Why does this matter?…
The majority of caregivers are female. The vast majority of hospitals, however, are led by males. Part of the difficulty in advancing the message of the need for a change in healthcare is that too many men control the story-telling.
The stories in hospital board rooms are too often about the bottom line, how the competition is doing and what acquisitions are on the horizon. Lost are the stories about the great caregiving up on the floors. The basic history of the hospital itself often fades away as well.
Hospitals and charities have a rich narrative tradition, a golden thread that weaves all the way back to the beginning of civilization. The way to know if an organization is relationship-centered is to listen to the stories being told. If the stories are about money and technology, you can bet that loving care is suffering.
Fortunately, the dominance of male energy (which may be possessed, of course, by either men or women) is fading. There are many more women in top leadership roles than there were even twenty years ago.
The question remains, will the women and men who run America’s healthcare organization relearn the power of stories of caring? And will they learn how to tell them in ways that refocus healthcare on Love?
-Erie Chapman
Journal of Sacred Work 
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