Medicine loves metrics. Twenty milligrams of this drug and ten cubic centimeters of that one dominate treatments and the lives of those who administer them.
Surgeons calculate to the millimeter. Accountants determine the numbers needed to meet budgets. Executives review patient satisfaction scores.
Amid this world of measurement there are many who cannot fathom the value of life's most important energy: Love. For example, in my years of leadership I have been challenged repeatedly to explain the role of compassion.
Loving care is nice, many say, but how does it fit with a business strategy? One board member once asked me: If you can't measure it, how can it matter?
I asked him if he loved his children.
"Of course," he said.
"How much do you love them?" I continued.
"A lot."
"Can you measure that?" I asked.
"Of course not," he said.
What you cannot measure matters most.
The peeking child delivers a dose of joy. He carries no hypodermic.
How many milligrams of love do you want for your child as she awaits chemotherapy? How many cubic centimeters of kindness do you wish for your mother the night before surgery? How many liters of compassion causes a patient to love their hospital experience?
Radical Loving Care calls caregivers to master the hard work of soft skills. True leaders know how to harness Love's energy to transform the medical experience into a sacred encounter. They understand that our humanity thrives in the land beyond measure.
Emerson wrote, "In silence we must wrap much of our life, because it is too fine for speech."
In healing you must let Love flow, because she is too beautiful for calculations.
-Erie Chapman
Photograph – Erie Chapman
Journal of Sacred Work 
Leave a comment