I spent some quality time in a medical waiting room earlier in the week. Routine visit and all is well, at least health-wise. But maybe all is not well in other ways. Placed prominently for all to see was the sign in the photo above:

Please treat our staff with respect.
Your words matter. Your behavior matters.
The safety of our patients and our team matters.
Thank you.

I don’t miss the year-old copies of Good Housekeeping, Sports Illustrated, and Road & Track that used to be a part of every waiting room, but this was something new and sad to see. I am assuming a reason, an incident or repeated incidents, that prompted the staff at the clinic to place the sign prominently in their waiting room. Unkind words spoken to the staff, the safety of patients and team members threatened. Wait, this is small-town America.

It has been sixty years since we were reminded that the times they are a-changin’. Of course, times are always changing, but maybe particularly so in the past sixty years.  And lest I find myself criticizing what I don’t understand, I should quickly add that I am among those who have gained much from the changes that have been far beyond my command. What a wonderful life! But what gain is there in having to be reminded to behave in the clinic’s waiting room?

Certainly, we can and we should mourn the death of classic liberalism, the decay of civic virtue, the loss of a sense of the common good we have witnessed in our lifetimes. While we might long for a time when treating with respect the staff and patients at a medical clinic went without saying, ours is a time when it must be said. And, yes, that is sad.

Maybe the times have not changed so much, however. Maybe disrespect and threat have always been a human problem.

The archeologists have yet to identify a medical clinic waiting room among their discoveries from Solomon’s Jerusalem. But Solomon’s words from Proverbs 21:21 might fit well in an ancient clinic where incidents of disrespect and threat occurred with growing frequency: Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness and honor. Maybe we’ve always needed a reminder that the pursuit of righteousness and kindness brings a better reward.

I wonder if folks in the waiting room would be less prone to disrespect and threats if they were offered year-old copies of Good Housekeeping, Sports Illustrated, and Road & Track.