Scottish Rite

The other day I was at Scottish Rite for Children’s hospital in Dallas. It was for a routine thing, this story isn’t about me or my family. It is about this amazing place and how much it means to have it out there in the world.

In the morning, I had done a phone call with a client with employees in Ukraine who talked about being nervous that the air raid sirens hadn’t gone off for 10 days. Another person remarked that people on their team had moved to Israel from Ukraine to get away from the conflict. The politics in the US are a discouraging shambles. In short, before heading out for the doctor’s visit I was really feeling despondent about the state of the world.

As we walked in we were met with smiles and escorted to the clinic we needed to go to. We checked in on an ipad that was all set up for us and made the process easy. All of our records transferred. Our insurance worked. Our images worked.

All around us adults including doctors, nurses, medical assistants, receptionists, schedulers and volunteers were giving young people, mostly young children - often with very serious and in some cases very visible health challenges - a lot of very close caring attention. They were showing they care and that they matter.

The clinics were color coded. There was a sculpture hanging from the ceiling. The rooms were identified by icons or logos not numbers. On the way out, there were two wonderful ladies sharing popcorn. It was “$0.75” but I saw them give it away to make sure all of the kids got some. Did I mention that parking was free and easily accessible?

There were a few important takeaways for me:

• This place is amazing. Kudos to Scottish Rite and everyone there.
• As an adult, I would LOVE to be able to go to a health care facility that was just like this. I loved the colors and fun. Why not?
• In a dark global moment, it meant so much to me to see people taking care of each other this way. It restored my faith in humanity a bit.

It also motivated me. This is the stuff that matters. I hope you will join me in making a small resolution to build some common ground, show some love and bring people together.