The Trust Fund
“You need to see this movie. You remember that actor from the one we watched over the holiday?”
“Yeah.”
“He’s in this one too. And wow does he play a bad guy. Just a mean, nasty, ruthless guy. You’ve gotta see it.”
Actors who play bad guys are trusted. And every industry going through tough times can be inspired.
Actors who play bad guys will never get the same acting accolades as others. Often their faces will be recognized and associated with the serious character flaws they’ve played. Critics will champion their skills and members of the public will misapply their characters in whatever way speaks. It takes active effort for these professionals to remember that they’ve been given a much better trophy: the trust fund.
We open our hearts all the time when storytellers come at us. We willingly go to the theater or invest hours of our evening at home to be told these narratives. And we willingly open our hearts to the bad guy characters, handing them all our trust. We do this as a public, and as individuals, because we know that one cannot play a bad guy without the utmost regard and awareness of human condition.
The reality of life is that there are some real life bad situations, where redemption will not appear anytime soon. It is disheartening at best, the fact that some can be so awful in actions: so selfish, so cold, so unfeeling. Scarier still is when we are unclear in others’ motives. The reality is that we need fellow humans to help us translate it all.
The actors who play the bad guys often know humans best, and can tap into all facets best, and this is why they are so trusted with our minds and our hearts. Our trust, the ultimate award.
Hang with me a minute before we get to healthcare.
First, let’s get the obvious stated:
- Clearly, we categorize good guys and bad guys because it creates a sense of order. The order is subjective within reason; we know violent and manipulative and harmful tendencies are wrong. And for most of us, we want to believe bad guys are redeemable. For each of us, there is a redemption threshold we place. If being honest, the threshold itself would have to be examined on a case by case basis. And if we’re being especially honest, most believe all people to have some spark of good. Whatever happened to minds or hearts along life’s journey has happened, yet even this change cannot tamper the smallest spark of good. Many of us believe that even the nastiest, most violent being will be forgiven by a higher power. Stating the obvious, I believe every human to have a spark of love, that everyone can and must be forgiven and that everyone should be reached with empathy. Most have their thoughts too. These are relatively clear things and society works out the norms of the times with present day consequences.
- It’s also relatively clear that many, many people love to define empathy, sympathy, compassion and positional states. Most of us just live through the ever-evolving definitions and most just go on with the day. So there’s no point in taking up space defining philosophy and scope of emotional reach.
Believing in good sparks is evident in the way we view storytellers. While some good guy actors can only play good guys, nearly all typecast antagonists could play believable good guys in new roles. This is often not a measure of talent; it is a result of the way each has connected to our own hearts. I emphasize applicability to all industries in the public eye: nearly all actors skilled at the bad guy role could play a believable good guy to an audience. The Michael Shannons, Javier Bardems, Hugo Weavings. This is because of that spark, and because they are trusted.
Peter Sarsgaard in either role, or any spectrum along the way? I’m connected. Sean Bean, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Samuel L. Jackson, same.
Some are preferred protagonists. While Jack Nicholson could embody a good guy, bad guy or somewhere along the greyscale and I’m all in, Mr. DiCaprio does not have the same benefit. I don’t believe it when the story assigns Mr. DiCaprio to be the bad guy through end credits and so I don’t spend time on disingenuous work. This is just a result of personal connection. Both can still pull from my trust fund at any time.
Individuals who we spend time with through the screen are loved - especially the bad guys. Not because the characters may or may not have redemption in sight, but because the actors are skilled at human condition. And for this incredible talent, they are given our trust. We let them into our hearts to hit at the nerves, to share, to move and change us for the better. We let them tap on the apex, ask if anybody’s home, and reply with a welcoming yes.
Oh, it likely doesn’t feel like an award, particularly if the bad guy is typecast. Or recognizable only for that one character. That one mean, angry high school bully defeated in the end.
And yet, we return to these professionals, the ones we’ve entrusted to do the work. And we willingly do so again and again. We can’t wait to see the movies and shows with their work. We can’t wait to scale just how bad they are. If they’ve been unwisely typecast or blackballed, we’ll watch the same stories over and over. The public will relive the same stories with the same trusted bad guy actor. Again and again the high school bully. It is the open heart investment that paid off, and we love these professionals dearly. Sometimes annoyingly. The trust fund award is the ultimate trophy, ultimate accolade.
Other industries would do well to remember storyteller impact when human condition is championed. Those professionals have helped us navigate good and bad through trust investment. In other avenues of life, one can’t open his or her heart, even for a second, when uncertain. Learned navigation steers us away.
In early 2013, amidst the lying and obtuse deceit, HR asked me to meet with a connection of theirs. One who had questions about my time in public health emergency preparedness, the goal being to improve the connection’s career path. By this point, I was aware that I would not be withdrawing from the trust fund for any deposits at my current workplace. Still, I gave them the benefit of my time. I met with this person in the back of the HR office. The shady lighting was a perfect set design. He sat and asked me some questions for his “interview”, questions not steered toward his own career path. Inquiries about the SNS (strategic national stockpile), of which I had a wealth of school knowledge and some short-term experience knowledge. No questions about the roles I fulfilled on my current job. The whole situation was extremely uncomfortable: it was not legitimate, and it was not trusted. The prying into my background had taken a turn for the seriously unprofessional. I walked out of the small office, very taken aback at being alone in a room with a strange actor, unclear if the situation was truthful in a months long untruthful environment, not even accompanied by HR. The HR director stood as I left and gave me a faint smile, one I will always remember. As if to say, ‘you’ll get through this, it was for your own good’. I thought to myself afterwards - was this situation and this environment a good or bad one? And then I decided it didn’t matter. It didn’t even matter if the person was truthful or acting...because it wasn’t trusted.
There is an unsettling feeling when one is in a situation that cannot be filed with structure. There is no order when we can’t clearly discern good or bad. From my own personal experience, it was clear that HR was not skilled in circumstantial empathy. Yet how could I apply this lesson, I wondered? And I decided I would apply it to top-down management structure in healthcare.
And, a gentle reminder always comes to mind in healthcare and storytelling congruence. When asked, there is only one response to my mom’s most despised “bad guy” character: Nurse Ratched. It’s impossible to connect to cold, unfeeling healthcare individuals. Individuals who provide a decline in wellbeing, who destabilize the feeling of safety, who do these things in superiority with a false guardianship to another’s ‘own good’. Nurses who would caregive without making the patient an equal in decision-making are alarming. Lack of ethics compounds. To an original point, however, the actor is trusted for her ability to understand and translate. We can take the implications, including discussions in healthcare that resulted from the actor's work, and we advance in trust.
So as I build structure in healthcare I reflect. In our one and only life, in the one and only present day, we decide who we trust as a good guy. And conversely, we decide who isn’t to be trusted, even if we hold a secret hope that their spark will one day shine through. Despite sparks, some do not have the current capability of touching our hearts with human compassion. They don’t get a share of our trust fund. We don’t want to be told stories by these individuals. We don’t want them in our space at all.
Whether in a vulnerable patient bed or as a vulnerable member of the public, with massive amounts of contradictory information at internet disposal, we must navigate good and bad in a way that includes trust. In trying times for healthcare, some may be cherished as the good guy and some may be the bad guy. The important thing is that healthcare is trusted. If storytellers are not trusted, no one will watch the story. If healthcare is not trusted, no one will invite healthcare into their space. And without trust, healthcare will be the uncertain, illegitimate side conversation. Healthcare can avoid being the actual bad guy by understanding the human translation of healthcare hesitancy.
In healthcare, we are in everyone’s space. It is not just the bedside clinicians; it is the medical device company representatives, the information technology software engineers, the pharmaceutical finance team. We are all in the patient’s space. It is our responsibility to reach every person with love and decency from the heart. The insurance billing department may not be beloved the way a good guy family medicine doctor is; the patient still needs to trust that this individual has the compassion to reach. The pharmaceutical research and development team is not going to win the award for outstanding community compassion. And yet, the public must be able to see the good that shine's through - and trust it. Fiscal conservatism in medicine is often the bad guy, with the logic of saving money versus spending in health prevention is so very arguable. Still, the public invests some trust that healthcare finance is putting human condition first - in one way or another. These are huge trust fund deposits and healthcare must respect it. Rather than tire of intermittent bad guy familiarity, cherish the public trust fund accordingly.
And, cherish your roles. In my own career, I’m usually preferred as the public health connector, liaison to care for all incomes across geographies, and educator on best public health practices. Still, every once in a while, I may be typecast back into immunizations. And with this character, I know I’ll be shot many youthful looks of tearful fury after administering childhood vaccines. And I’ll know I was trusted. Individuals will return in 2 months, 4 months and years later to get more protection. Often asking for the same nurse. We cherish the roles when the public invests trust; this concept is a cross-industry inspiration.
I call bad situations for what they are now. They aren’t beloved, trusted bad guy actors in stories. They aren’t situations where we wait for the sparks to shine through. Those without the capacity and empathy to lead our real life narrative needn’t be handed one cent of the trust fund. And we pivot, spending our banked investment for the necessities of the present day. There is no need for the public to walk into unclear situations in public service; hire and staff and operationalize and manage accordingly.
In public service and in life, champion the difference between a fantastic, trusted actor and an actual bad guy. The actual bad guys will not let the smallest spark shine through in this lifetime. They will create chaos, disorder, scare. They will thrive off harm or alarm and they will enjoy it. Navigate away from the mess and into the sphere of the trust fund. A trusted actor will tap into fears, seeking to understand and connect. Rather than scare, they translate by addressing the issue.
The actors who play the bad guys often know humans best, and can tap into all facets best, and this is why they are so trusted with our minds and our hearts. Let us navigate our own, and the public's trust funds accordingly, keeping the bad guy actors close to heart. They’re going to tap it anyway, may as well be up close.
Hello, is anybody home? Yep, we’re at home with you, our trusted human connections who help us navigate toward real life good.