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
Journal of Sacred Work 
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