"Sex." The word exploded from the road sign because the building behind it was a church. My church. In his sermon, the great Rev. Waldemar Argow admitted right away, "I named my sermon "Sex" to fill this place." Scanning the crowded pews he quipped, "It worked!"

   Except in a Polynesian Island or a doctor's exam room, the word "naked" still rivets attention.  Drop "naked" into a conversation, brand a juice drink with it, or add it to a music concert ad and you will catch eyes just as the brochure (left) stopped me from tossing it. 

   What if the ad said, "Nude Classics?" Same response because society still misses the difference.

   In his classic book, The Nude – A Study in Ideal Form, Professor Kenneth Clark describes the crucial distinction: "To be naked is to be deprived of our clothes, and the word implies some of the embarrassment most of us feel in that condition. The word "nude," on the other hand, carries, in educated usage, no uncomfortable overtone." (emphasis added.)

   My art gallery* is dominated by studies of "Ideal Form," the female nude. Only the educated appreciate it. 

   Similarly, another word shocks hospital leaders. My first culture-change recommendation to CEOs? "While rounding, ask a nurse, 'How do you give loving care?'" 

   The question works. Yet, about a third of the male leaders, even doctors, ask, "Do I have to use the 'love' word?"

   I answer with a question, "Isn't love at the center of mission?"

   To my profound disappointment, they say, "Yes, but…then dilute the question or never ask it. 

   Leaders asking caregivers "How they give loving care" signals love matters and can initiate a culture change: to Radical Loving Care. 

-Erie Chapman

*The mission of Erie Chapman Foundation is to advance Radical Loving Care^® in healthcare and the arts.