Remarks

I have received quite a few requests for a copy of some brief remarks I recently made at an awards ceremony. I have decided to make this document available on the HBI Blogspot. Please see below.

Thank you -

“I come to you in the name of . . .”
By Wayne Centrone

Thank you. It is a real honor and pleasure to be here tonight.

All too often it is easy to get caught up in the busy-ness of life. The “To Do” lists and the endless array of errands and “got to get dones.” They fill our daily routines to the point that we are lost in a mindless routine. I know this all too well.

Perhaps the best way I have found to re-center, re-focus myself through this “forest and tree” interplay - is with the stories of my patients. Stories that punctuate a human spirit and a heartbreaking level of trauma and tragedy.

Please do not get me wrong, I can get just as myopic as any other physician – relegating a patient to a set of laboratory data points or all too often narrowing them into a diagnosis – AND, when I can remember that they have a story that sits behind the “curtain” of our clinical interactions – I can really tap into the soul of the work that we are doing.

Our Outreach program is a kaleidoscope of stories. Each with a bit of tragedy, a sliver of triumph, and a significant amount of hope. Hope that comes through relationships. Hope that comes through compassionate caring. And hope that comes from just being with another human being during their darkest times and most difficult challenges.

In Latin America when a person makes a presentation, accepts an award, or is showered with accolades – they will often say . . . “I come to you in the name of – “signifying the collaboration that often seeds any activity.

Well, I come to you tonight in name of the “shadow people” of our metropolitan area. People who have for so long been without a voice. People who slip below the radar screens of our lives. People who often live their lives in a somewhat hopeless desperation. I come to you tonight to give them voice. To let you know that they are not alone. To insist that their lives do matter.

And most of all, I come to you tonight in the name of hope – a hope that is grounded in the belief that we (working together with our collective talents, skills, and compassions) can ensure that no one (no human being, no child of God) will ever be forced to suffer in silence. No one will be plagued by the desperate fear that comes from feeling cast out or forgotten by society.

I want to leave you with one challenge. A simple challenge, that is anything but easy. A challenge that asks you to push your personal boundaries. A challenge to consider one thing (one act, one contribution, one event) that you can take on each week. Maybe this is seeing a pro-bono patient (for the providers in the room), maybe this is volunteering to precept/mentor the next generation of health care professionals and social justice leaders, or maybe it is just remembering that many people in our communities are riddled with the burdens of mental illness, substance addiction, and economic injustice.

My challenge may seem simple – but my challenge comes with a hidden agenda. For you see, I truly believe that giving is more about receiving than an act or service. I truly believe that when we allow ourselves to move outside of the day-to-day comforts of our lives we learn more about ourselves than we could have ever imagined. You see I believe that the best way to change the world for people living on the streets or suffering in extreme poverty is through changing the way we view this world. Believing that we are connected. Recognizing that we are dependent. Understanding that we are united.

Tonight - I come to you in the name of the sex workers of our communities who live in fear and suffer from the ravages of abuse and addiction, I come to you in the name of the Latino Day Laborers who struggle to navigate a world so foreign to their own, I come to you in the name of the homeless young adult who is searching for answers in their life and struggling with an addiction to heroin and an abusive relationship. But most of all - I come to you in the name of hope. Hope that we can, and will change the lives of these beautiful and important people – through our collective, compassionate efforts.

Thank you for this marvelous recognition and thank you for all your wonderful work.