The week begins. We clamber out of bed with news Americans hate: "Oh NO! It's Monday!"

   For caregivers energized by their work's meaning it is different. They relieve fatigue using spiritual as well as material sight knowing that science's goal is curing while healing requires Love's sacred eyes.

   When Jack Chester, Esq., was Vice Chair of Riverside Methodist's board he cross-examined me once in a way that made me glad for my trial lawyer training:

   "Erie, Riverside's doing great in every area. How do you do it?"

   "Leaders practice loving care," I said. "Our work is a calling, not just a job. We take care of the people who take care of people."*(see photo)

   "THAT is what I don't understand," he challenged. "How do you lead with a theory you can't measure?"

   "You mean, if you can't measure it, it doesn't matter??

   "Right!" he said.

   "How much do you love your kids?" I asked.

   "More than anything!" he answered."

   "Can you measure that?"

   He appeared to get the point yet as a concrete thinker seemed unable to absorb it. To him, hospitals were medical worlds where measurement was "everything."

   Issac Newton was a science genius. His one mistake? That science could explain everything. His belief that science held all answers was like preachers who believe religion solves everything. 

   In this material world, Jack wins. It is his memorial that sits in the Riverside lobby honoring his good gifts of time and money.

   The memorial for loving leadership is invisible. It is etched into the hearts of caregivers who know that Love's energy brought out their best in those years. 

   What matters most cannot be measured.

-Erie Chapman

*Photo of announcement of EMPLOYEE CONVENIENCE CENTER at Riverside, launched when the great Mark Evans was SVP for HR. Circa 1989