White Paint

I know a man that paints.

Every day, all he does is paint the hospital white. It's his job. He goes around with cans of white paint, in all white clothes, and paints the walls Toby Cosgrove's favorite color. As long as there is a Clinic, he says, he will be painting it white.

This man keeps a sense of humor about things. As he paints the baseboards, he scoots around on a little wheeled board, zipping down the hallway at the level of your knees and smiling up at you. We've chatted many a time in the hallway about the changing weather, about where we're from, about our careers. I thanked him one day for painting the walls white. He thanked me for fixing bodies.

In the end, how much does it matter whether we are painting the walls or fixing bodies? Or serving french fries to patients' families, or fixing the phones when they break? In the end, we all work at the Cleveland Clinic, and the place wouldn't run too well without every one of those positions filled.

I wonder, though, if he ever wishes he painted at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital across the street.  :)