What Do You Stand For?

“Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.” – Alexander Hamilton, statesman   The above statement could not have been truer than in today’s conflict-filled world. People in the Middle East are standing for what they believe to affect a positive change. As these people are finding out, sometimes standing for a principal may be dangerous and costly in numerous ways. Are you willing to stand for something despite the potential consequences? Unfortunately, many would say that it might not be important enough to risk a stand or the situation doesn’t involve me, so I am not going to get involved. Do these sound familiar? Not to realize that today’s world requires each of us to take stands of various types is to be living what I call the Dreamer’s View of Life.   You remember the children’s song, “Row Row Row Your Boat”? This song exemplifies the life of someone who chooses not to stand for anything. The first line goes, Row, row, row, your boat. You notice that it is your boat that is being rowed, not someone else’s boat. The dreamer is not concerned about anybody’s boat but his own. He is not interested in helping anyone but himself. He just doesn’t want to get involved with anyone else’s problems.   The next line of the song is Gently down the stream. The two key words in that line are gently and down. The dreamer doesn’t want to work hard at anything. Just give him the easy way out. He wants to do everything gently. He also wants to go down the stream. Never, ever should the dreamer go against the current or make any waves! Take the easy way through life. Today we would say “just go with the flow.”   The dreamer wants to go through life just like the next line states—Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily. Have fun. Enjoy life. Don’t risk offending anyone or standing for anything that might not be popular. The crowd is always right, isn’t it?   Why should the dreamer risk standing for anything, because, as the last line of the song says, Life is but a dream.¹ This is all there is, so just look out for number one and don’t care about anyone else. Don’t try to make a difference by actually standing for something! Life is all a dream, anyway.   I know this may sound simplistic to most, but think of the people you know who choose not to stand for much of anything, much less the right things. Even in wound care we have a choice to stand for something. Will you stand up for your patients when they are receiving poor care and try to correct the issue even thought there may be risk to you? I know a young lady who stood up to the establishment at her hospital to improve the care for patients with wounds. The hospital chose to continue the poor care, and the young lady lost her job. Would you have done that? With major changes coming in the healthcare programs for patients with wounds, are you willing to stand for what is best for your patient when it seems that the odds are overwhelming and the risks insurmountable? That day may be coming sooner than we think.   I hope that you will not choose the Dreamer’s View of Life and remember that we are here to help others—that is what we do in wound care. When things are going well for the patients and caregivers, it is easy to lapse into a dreamer’s view. We must stand for something, and not fall for just anything, in order to help our patients. 1. Lyte EO. Row, Row, Row Your Boat. The Golden Book of Favorite Songs. Chicago, IL: Hall and McCreary Co.; 1946:50.