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1/ Very often when I am walking around the hospital I make a point of saying hello to everybody cuz I like to live in places where people say hello to each other #medtwitter #FM4MN A lot of times folks ask me how I'm doing, and I'll just say “I'm living the dream”, and some…
2/ …folks will just laugh along with me, and some folks will laugh and say “it's a bit of a nightmare isn't it.” I usually say something like “it's what we got, and what we do.” It is nonsense, but every time there's a place in my heart where I just understand.
3/ Sometimes it does feel like a nightmare. On days like this that are so beautiful, I just wonder how can a nightmare look so normal?
4/ When I was younger I used to have a lot of nightmares, until somewhere I read if you're in a nightmare you need to face the monster, you need to run to the monster stand before it, look right into its eyes, and step into it.
5/ Because what you really realize is all parts of dreams are you. Facing yourself is a critical point controlling your path in your dream.
I know this is not a dream.
I know this is not a dream.
6/ Oh, I also know that it does feel sometimes like we're living in a nightmare just beyond our control because “others” are not doing the right thing, and “they” are prolonging our nightmare.
7/ We have to find a way to control our path, we have to figure out what that monster really is, what it is inside of us we can change. As I've said before the virus is not the enemy, the enemy is fear, the enemy is greed, the enemy is selfishness.
8/ I think we have to face our fear that we have no control to end this nightmare and that is in someone else's hands.
It's not. It is in each one of our hands.
It's not. It is in each one of our hands.
9/ People are using division, hateful speech, schadenfreude, ad hominem attacks, and anger to sow fear among us for their own desire for power. Their efforts are ripping us apart, prolonging this nightmare, and hijacking our dreams.
What can one person do?
What can one person do?
10/ One person can be the ripple that starts the wave. Today and every day face that personal monster.
We don't run from it and we don't become it.
We overcome it.
We overcome it when we face fears with acts of compassion, kindness, caring, and courage.
We don't run from it and we don't become it.
We overcome it.
We overcome it when we face fears with acts of compassion, kindness, caring, and courage.
11/ I specifically say actions. When we act there are consequences and each of those consequences provides opportunities for new actions. Actions are how we build the path and walk the path that will get us through this.
12/ We can either stay frightened and controlled in our own personal nightmares, or we can choose to wake up each day and act in a way that's going to bring more compassion, kindness, caring, and courage into our world.
13/ I don't have time to fight with people about hydroxychloroquine (it does not work), I don’t have time to beg someone to wear a mask, I’ve got shit to do. If I want someone to wear masks I'll show them how to wear a mask by I wearing my mask, and by being in the multitude of…
14/ …Minnesota doctors who demanded and begged the governor to do a Statewide mandate, and I will help anyone who asks me about masks, I don't have time to argue about whether this a hoax, we are working with our students, resident physicians, and organizations in our…
15/ …community to get 10,000 masks to some of the most vulnerable people our the state. Every act of kindness counts. It doesn't have to be big things, it can be an everyday run of the mill act of kindness, and it can be an easy act of compassion. Thanking the clerk at the…
16/ …retail and grocery stores, tipping the folks who bring you dinner to the curb, appreciating each other with a “thumbs up” as you pass each other on the trail at an appropriate social distance, asking your child's teacher what they need, then doing that.
17/ We know folks who deliver groceries to old people so they don't have to go outside or pay for delivery. We know people volunteer to do the shopping for multiple households so fewer people have to go to the store.
18/ We know very courageous people who are the only ones in their neighborhood store wearing a mask.
19/ We know people that are standing and marching, with masks on in the protests as often as they can, to make sure the normalizing the dismantling of structural racism is one of the changes that arise from this nightmare.
20/ We know people that are doing everything in their power to get our citizens informed about the rights and ability to vote this November.
21/ Each small effort, every kindness, every act of compassion, every act of caring, every act of courage, allows us to face our monster and when we refuse to become the monsters, that is when we change our nightmare into a dream.
22/ A dream of a brighter tomorrow brought about by the choices we make today. A dream in which we all get through this together, because of the path we’ve built together. That dream can start today, and must be renewed every day.
23/ And as we take these actions and make these choices our dreams will become our realities. We will leave this nightmare behind and the next normal will be a kinder place. Can we do this? I believe we can. I will start today. I will start now. See you on the other side.
