SIMPLY INSPIRED...

i like story telling. there is something in every story that inspires you to do good. and i'm not talking about the biblical stories with vague messages that are open to multiple interpretation. i'm talking about real people's stories.

this afternoon, we had an hourlong departmental meeting and the hospital's new Chief Information Officer was invited to you know, get to know the groups he is working with. i've met him twice now and i remembered the last time he did not share with us his career background that led him to the position that he applied for so he told us about it. he's obviously a very brilliant person, a good speaker, and from the looks of it a very effective leader. yeah i think i'm too easily impressed and his performance still remains to be seen but i'm just so awed by the stories he uses in his speeches. these stories are so plain and humbling but its messages are really strong.

He was talking about how great Canada was as a country and he made me reflect that i have to stop bitching about this country can sometimes suck and the people here are TOO spoiled. his stories made me change my somewhat negative perspective to something positive. i realized that it is a great country because the people living in it tend to make good decisions that are for the better of everybody - to make people from different walks of life be free from the basic source of anguish - less income --> poor health --> hazy prospects for the future - by means of providing "free" healthcare for everybody (its not exactly free but tax dollars being put to good use), generous resources to in order to choose a better career by study-now-pay-later options for students whose parents cannot afford to send them to school. and i think this is good because if people can do that in real life, then people CAN make a difference in influencing society. it's not fairy tale, it happens. and it is motivating.

he was sharing about his background - from where his family came from. when he was really really young his family moved to Canada from East Africa and was told by the government to not bring anything but themselves. his father was running a lucrative business so he had to see the transition of him being the boss of his own business to having to go door-to-door in a new strange country looking for a job. he shared that he had to take a government loan in order to pursue his studies. and look at him now, he is senior management! all thanks to the generous national policies that Canada's forefathers have thought of and have implemented and for the Canadian people in general trusting that these policies are for a greater good and have readily supported these policies regardless if they had to be taxed heavily or not.

if Canada can do it, so should other nations... and all it takes is a shift in moral and ethical beliefs...