Recently, Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center received the following handwritten letter addressed to their doctors and nurses:
Thank you for putting your lives at risk to save others. You have so much pressure put on you trying to cure patients. If we didn’t have doctors and nurses like you this outbreak would be a lot worse. You guys are so brave to do this. You deserve more appreciation than what you get. Thank you so much!
— Noelle, 8th Grade, Old Town
Thank you, Noelle, for your heartwarming words at a time when we all could use some uplifting. The messages you convey to our health care workers — you are valued, you are helpful and you make a difference in our lives by your actions — are profound and belie your years on this earth. If only our leaders — political, scientific and economic — could speak as eloquently and succinctly as you, an eighth-grader from Old Town. Perhaps if they did, we would not see an increasing divide among our citizens but instead a coalescing around a simple message — do good things and good things will happen.
The world that you are growing up in has fundamentally changed but your message should not. Whether we are addressing a pandemic or social and racial injustice or the crippling of our economy, it’s actions like yours for which we will be measured. What better way to start than to be courteous to one another and thank people for when they are kind, caring, brave and, like you, thoughtful.
As you watch the news, scan Facebook or Youtube, or see hateful signs along the road, you may wonder if there is anyone left who deserves gratitude. Yes, there are. All we need to do is look around us to see them.
The hockey player who wears a face covering at Walmart to keep his grandmother at home safe, the grocery store worker who wipes shopping carts with disinfectant, the teacher who takes time away from her Zoom classroom to deliver a much needed lunch out of the back of a school bus, the police officer who saves a life by administering Narcan to someone who has overdosed, the small business owner who transforms her operations to meet the challenges of shortages of personal protective equipment, the volunteer poll worker upholding democracy, the farmer who donates from their community garden, and the student who touches the hearts of front line workers with a word of kindness.
History is filled with names of people who exhibited generosity during times of adversity. Some names more famous like Clara Barton and Harriet Tubman who each made sacrifices to assist others during the Civil War. Some less so like Edward Jenner who freely explained his process of vaccination against the scourge of small pox and Dr. Charles Drew, who developed the process to store blood plasma and directed the blood plasma programs of the United States and Great Britain in World War II, despite facing prejudice due to his race.
Noelle, your name represents a time of joy and giving. As we navigate being socially isolated, deciding to add our voice to a chorus for social change, or simply preparing for high school, we cannot forget such times. Nor can we let absence of such times impede us from being better people.
Each day can start by deciding, “will I be gracious and kind to others, showing respect in both word or deed or will I sow discord and discontent in people who are as troubled with the world as I am?” Knowing there are people in the world such as you, Noelle, the answer for me is easy.
Thank you for touching my heart. Thank you for caring when it would be easier to be preoccupied in yourself.
James W. Jarvis is the director of clinical education at Eastern Maine Medical Center and senior physician executive and system incident commander at Northern Light Health.