A Journey to "Oz""

Last month I traveled to Kansas to visit a very special place that has a national reputation as one of the most advanced culture change organizations in providing care to our elders. This trip enabled me to witness first-hand the amazing opportunities and potential that exist within our imagination and capabilities.

The fact that we were in Kansas, the home of the infamous story of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", got me to thinking of the similarities between the story of Dorothy's journey and that of our own journey. And thus, I have penned this short story entitled........A Journey to "Oz".

Amanda Gale is a young, professional nursing home administrator who helps care for several chronically ill elders. One day her office, with Amanda sitting at her desk, is caught up in a whirlwind of regulatory redtape, reimbursement cuts and staffing shortages that whisk her off to a far away land named Oz. When she lands, her desk falls on and kills the wicked health department director of the East.

Glinda, the good doctor of the North, comes with the elders of Oz to greet Amanda (and her little dog Yoshi) and gives Amanda the silver pen that the wicked health department director had in his pocket when he was killed. In order to return to Rochester, Glinda tells Amanda that she will have to travel to the "Golden City" and ask the Healthcare Czar of Oz to help her.

On her way along the "pathway to meaningful living", Amanda meets a lonely old lady who she talks to and befriends, a helpless old man who she seeks assistance from, and a bored old woman who she invites to join their party. All are convinced by Amanda that the great Czar can help them too. Together, they overcome obstacles along the pathway to the Golden City including regulatory requirements, a lack of funding and the deadly naysayers to change.

When the travelers finally arrive at the Golden City, the great Healthcare Czar agrees to help them, but first they must kill the 3 plagues of elders- lonliness, helplessness and boredom, which account for the bulk of suffering among the elders of Oz.

As the friends travel across the land of Oz, the 3 plagues attack them and all the others elders of Oz. Everywhere they go, the elders appear to be lacking meaningful living in the places where they live and are cared for. Amanda is not detered and uses her silver pen to craft new ideas and a vision for a better world in a land free of the 3 plagues.

When the wicked health department director of the West snatches the silver pen from Amanda by trickery, Amanda in anger grabs a bucket of water and throws it on the wicked director, who begins to melt. The elders rejoice in their freedom and ask the lonely old lady to come live with them, and the helpless old man to become their new leader, and the bored old woman to become head of all activities. All agree to do so after helping Amanda return to the Golden City and home.

When Amanda and her friends meet the great Czar again, he tries to put them off. Yoshi accidently tips over a screen in the corner of the Czar's throne room, revealing an old man who had journeyed to Oz a long time ago in a hot air balloon. Amanda and her friends are heart-broken to learn that the Czar has no awesome powers to help them.

But then Amanda correctly points out that they all have the power within to change and that the antidote to the 3 plagues of lonliness, helplessness and boredom are simply:

• Loving & meaningful companionship and a life that revolves around relationships in a truly human community with children, plants and animals.
• A community that balances both the ability to give care and receive care gracefully.
• A life filled with variety, spontaneity and choice.

At Glinda's palace where they head to next, the travelers are greeted warmly, and it is revealed by Glinda that Amanda had the power to return home all along. The silver pen she held in her hand can take her anywhere she envisions. She tearfully embraces her friends, all of whom will stay in Oz and flourish in their new roles with all the other elders and people of Oz.

Amanda and Yoshi return to Rochester where she continues her "pathways journey" with all her peers, determined to destroy the wicked 3 plagues of lonliness, helplessness and boredom that continue to account for much suffering among the elders back home. She dreams of the day when all of the country becomes like Oz and all our elders rejoice in the joy of meaningful living forever.

THE END!