Salus Forum: January 7, 2026

We have introduced a Latin term, Salus. Another ancient language is Sanskrit. And I just happened to be in Iowa for these two weeks with my wife at a retreat called the World Peace Assembly, and the idea is that when people get together to meditate together, there are positive effects on others in a peaceful way. They call it the World Peace Assembly. There are four Sanskrit terms to think about. They all start with the letter S. It’s a nice way to think about it, simple. The first one is SEVA, S-E-V-A, and that is service. We’re here for service.

The second one is SANGHA, S-A-N-G-H-A, and that is we’re here to be together.  We never really accomplish anything; even though we need to do things individually, we really need each other. SARANA is related to spiritual practices, or taking time, whether it’s prayer, meditation, study, whatever it might be, to actually improve. And SAMADHI, S-A-M-A-D-H-I, the idea of SAMADHI is the goal. That’s where we’re at peace in our mind, in our body, and in our soul.

Jeremy

One of the things I sense happening in this world now is trying to mix together ancient wisdom and modern science. It seems as though we play around in that playground quite a bit in this group. I appreciate you bringing the ancient Sanskrit wisdom.  Because I do feel that the sense of service gets lost in healthcare a lot.

The sense of community is very fragile. It can be in parts of a healthcare system and not in other parts.  It’s not a universal experience. And I think there’s great discomfort with recognizing the spiritual nature of the work we do. And experiencing a sense of peace is not a common thing people think of when they think of healthcare. They think of chaos and crisis. Illness, disease, and suffering. So, thank you for bringing out those positive features, which demonstrate, as you’re pointing out, the need for leadership to get us there. So that’s what struck my mind.

Walt

Well, of course, Jeremy. It’s just another edification about your amazing leadership, because that leads us right to the question that I thought would be the obvious next one for us. Initially, when I was thinking about master adaptive leadership, However, what comes up over and over again for me is the North Star, the purpose. It’s leadership.  So could you just go around and, you know, in your 32nd kind of thing, what are the major roles that you’ve had that convinced you that, oops, I’m supposed to be in a leadership role. Although everybody, even my three-year-old grandchild, who’s going to have a birthday in a couple of days, she’s leading the way in many ways. But what kind of formal leadership did you first take on? Maybe a few of them. So you get a kind of flavor about your own journey so far.