Florence Nightingale took on the generals and doctors during the Crimean War of 1853-56 and she said: “There is not an official who would not burn me like Joan of Arc if he could.”
This is the response humans in power have when their authority is questioned by new ideas and by “outsiders”. Fortunately for the soldiers and the sick in years to come, Florence had friends in high places. And so sanitation, hygiene, and fresh air prevailed. At least for a time.
New ideas are hard for us. For example, the men running the Boston Marathon refused to use the chip to determine winners.. . for decades! Why? Old men in power! My wonderful husband wrote a well-reasoned letter to explain how runners were being cheated out of age group awards by this failure. He doubted that it helped. But, I think that the younger men could well have used his “evidence” to finally prevail.
It happens in every field. It seems we are not good at building new mental maps. And we are even worse at discarding OLD MENTAL MAPS.
My goal this year will be to explore some of the new mental maps I have been building. Building slowly . . . to be sure. But mental maps affect the way information is sorted, processed and used. Information is virtually useless if it is not housed in a meaningful structure. So! Let us BEGIN!
There is much work to do. Sad to say, todayʻs hospitals are without open windows, the air is not fresh, and blue light rules. And even though STERILE is a GOAL — patients keep catching intractable infections! The “men in charge” have retaken control.”
Story teller,
A Moment with God 
Leave a comment