When Dignity Health, the Catholic health care system, launched the “Hello humankindness” PR campaign in June 2013, well, they had me at “Hello.”

When the project went live, Dignity Health’s President/CEO Lloyd Dean provided the rationale for the program, saying: “What’s missing in the public discourse about health care is the fact that while medicine has the power to cure, it’s humanity that holds the power to heal.”

Dean pointed to two drivers shaping U.S. culture and the nation’s health care industry:

  • The institutionalization of health care, and,
  • The decline of civility in society.

That was 2013.

#HelloHumankindness sought to bring back civil discourse to America and address the nation’s health disparities, among other lofty and worthy goals.

A couple of years into this project, I

In 2019, Dignity Health merged with Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) to form CommonSpirit Health, now the fifth largest health system in the U.S.

This month, CommonSpirit launched two videos that join the growing #HelloHumankindness media library to inspire us.

First, check out this fierce and loving Motivational Sister…

Now, have some fun with Sidewalk Chalk…

CommonSpirit reminds us to calendar in September 21st, World Gratitude Day, asking….”What acts of kindness are you grateful for?”

As for me, I’m grateful for:

  • My health
  • My family
  • My wonderful friends who live near and not-so-close-by
  • My resilient and fast broadband connection, which has enabled me to connect with those not-so-close-by-friends and family
  • My access to delicious and nutritious food for sustenance, wellness, and cooking pleasure
  • My work which gives me the ability to share perspectives and support health/care with and for clients and communities keen to collaborate in the health/care ecosystem
  • My many interests and activities that I can engage with given the blessing of time and resources,
  • among many, many other blessings.

I share the CommonSpirit #HelloHumankindness message with you today as it is the holiest day of the year for Jewish people celebrating the New Year 5782. Today is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, during which I will humbly ask G-d to inscribe me in the Book of Life for one more year, as well as ask forgiveness for my less-than-stellar actions from the past year.

I realize this is the second faith-themed essay I’ve written here in the past two weeks (I covered the Catholic Health Association and Pope Francis’s call for vaccinations one week ago).

To confess, it is a contemplative time of year for me. FYI in full transparency, I live in an inter-faith household and embrace Love as a central tenet of everyday life.

So, it seems, do the folks at CommonSpirit, who Twitter-posted this sweet child blowing the traditional shofar, or ram’s horn, that ushers in every Jewish New Year.

As we say at this holiday/Holy Day,

May you be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life for a good year.

See you on the other side….which will be Friday 16th September here on Health Populi…