An Idea is Born
Hi. Hello. Good morning.
I want to tell the story of an idea I am working on right now. Not because I feel like I am brilliantly executing a dynamite idea, but because it quite beautifully illustrates the gorgeousness embedded in humanity.
At the end of January an idea landed on my shoulder. I recognized it as a good idea, even in its utter simplicity.
Ideas don’t have to be complex to be good.
I say fell on my shoulder because that’s precisely how it happened. I was just waking up one morning when the idea presented itself. Music producer and writer of the terrific book, The Creative Act, A Way of Being, Rick Rubin, says that ideas float around all the time, waiting for a vehicle, waiting for someone who is ready to take the idea and bring it into the world. I believe this. You cannot force an idea, it will flow to you and through you from Infinity.
Here is the origin story of the idea:
I began visiting people in nursing homes when I was in my early twenties. I was living in Lake Placid, NY at the time and wanted to make myself useful, so I went to the closest nursing care facility and asked if I could volunteer. They introduced me to a woman named Emily Alden Pierce. Emily loved books, like me, but she was blind and could no longer read, so I spent time with her each week, reading to her.
In spite of her rather dismal surroundings, Emily was a happy person. We both loved our time together each week and we became good friends.
When I was young these places were always called nursing homes. Over time, the idea of senior living took hold and more and more elders moved into these communal living situations.
Wherever I have lived I connected with the local nursing home. The fake flowers and art prints never fooled me—most people, in the last stages of life, are lonely, bored, confused as to their purpose and wonder why they’re still alive. Forty years after my first visits with Emily and people in senior living situations are still playing bingo and doing puzzles.
Shame on all of us for letting this happen.
Today I make lots of visits to senior living spaces, across the economic spectrum. I cannot report that quality of life improves greatly based on access to resources.
We are keeping people alive longer and longer; oh, how we love longevity! The oldest ones win!
Do they really?
Ten, twenty years of doctor appointments, medical interventions, pharmaceuticals, and bingo?
Obviously that’s a bit of a harsh generalization, but it’s not that far from reality.
A lot of time and energy have been poured into keeping people alive, but very little thought has gone into quality of life.
That’s why the idea alighted on my shoulder that January morning, like a little bird saying, please, Melissa, do something about this.
At one point I was hired to be a chaplain in a nursing care facility. There were 333 beds and I was hired to work ten hours a week.
I was an English major; you do the math.
Every time I visit a senior living environment everyone I meet is dealing with some sort of existential situation: illness; death of a spouse; displacement from a beloved home and community; loneliness; lack of meaning; lack of purpose, and, of course, end of life.
There is always one of me and 50 or more of them.
The idea is simple: move spiritual care for seniors online. Create connections between spiritual care providers and seniors.
I’m not a huge fan of technology, either, but here we are, and offering something, in this case, is way, way better than nothing.
Only problem: how the heck to do this? An idea is one thing; a product another.
The first person I shared the idea with is a friend I have known since high school, Mike. His work in the tele-health funding sector . Mike is brilliant and humble and kind, such a fantastic combination. He offered several suggestions, one of which was connecting with the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth.
I looked through the staff at Magnuson and chose a woman named Angela to reach out to. Makes sense, right?
In spite of the fact that I did not attend Dartmouth, Angela got right back to me, said she like the idea, and offered me a 30-minute phone consultation.
It turned out that her mom was a chaplain in a nursing home. She understood the problem.
Angela was generous enough to continue our conversation via email, offering me lots of input and suggestions
I started talking about the idea to friends and family and fellow chaplains. I talked with people living in senior communities, the children of people living in senior communities, activities directors and managers of these places. I talked with young entrepreneurs, people who have started successful businesses. Everyone, universally, liked the idea.
Every step of the way I doubted myself. How could a woman my age start a new business? How on earth can I figure out the tech piece? Will anyone care? Who am I to think I could have a great idea?
So let me just say this: this idea has a life of its own. I have always been a curious person, a tester of limits, a questioner of standard practices. I’m sure I’ve pissed a lot of people off, alienated some people, exhausted others. But nothing every gets done, nothing changes in this world without people like me wondering how it can be done differently.
We usually associate tech entrepreneurship with the young, with math and computer science majors, but that’s just a story we tell ourselves. All of life is for dreaming new dreams and trying new things, and anyone can be open to the universe’s playfulness when it comes to ideas.
What I have found in this process is that people are kind and helpful and supportive and when an idea is needed in the world, a support system will appear and the project will have an energy that keeps it in motion.
That has most certainly been the case with SAM: Sustaining Spirituality and Meaning Throughout All of Life.
Here’s how I chose the name (and no, Nate and Coco, I did not name it after my favorite kid).
The project was gaining traction, but it needed a name. So I went out for a walk, here on the dirt road where I live.
I knew I wanted it to be a human name, an easy to remember, solid name …. Sam, the most obvious, my first big project in life.
Sam … acronym for what?
Walking, walking, thinking … spiritual … and … meaningful. Spiritual and meaningful, that’s the whole point of life! SAM!
That minute, and I couldn’t possibly make this up … a truck drove past me and on the side was written Take it away Sam!
I live on a dead end dirt road, literally in the middle of nowhere.
Every single step of the way, this project has been one yes! after another.
I needed a tech person. Austin Cobb, Middlebury computer science major and kid who grew up in Peru, Vermont, showed up with the kindest demeanor and said yes, I can help.
I have four lovely, compassionate, experienced 6chaplains at the ready to start the work.
My son, Sam’s partner, Mišel, is an MBA student at Duke and she and her classmates want to work on the project.
I have applied to Y Combinator, a start-up accelerator. Another foreign sentence to me. I had already boxed myself out of that world, of start-ups, thinking that as a spiritual person or an English major I would have no business going there. What a dumb thought. I want nothing more than to go to San Fran and spend three months with those creatives, learning new things, asking a million questions, being the grandmother of the group and building SAM so that every goddamned senior citizen everywhere has a shot at quality of life.
The idea has morphed several times in the three months since it fell out of the sky and into my life. First I saw it as an app, now I envision it as a dedicated screen in every apartment or room in every senior living situation in America. With three simple voice activated options: make an appointment with a chaplain; listen to inspirational recordings and meditative music; talk with a compassionate chatbot friend.
I’m not listening to Michael Singer or Caroline Myss spiritual growth podcasts anymore, it’s all start-up stuff. I’ve entered a whole new world with a new language and I freaking love it.
Here are some important things I have learned:
You have to have empathy for the user when you’re thinking of a new idea.
You need a strong desire to fix something that’s broken.
You should personify the product.
I want SAM to be the way we offer to our elders respect, peace of mind and sense of purpose. An understanding that they are not invisible, that their life matters, to the end and beyond.
Do I like them, the future users? No, I love them, every one of them. I LOVE them and I would argue that every one of us has a responsibility to give them a better quality of life.
There is endless room for improvement in our world. And there is not a chance in hell that I am going to retire from anything and take up golf. SAM is going to happen and I hope that one day it comes into your life and makes it better.
There was no part of me who imagined that I could enter the start-up world, speak the language, find a tech person. I thought it was all a private club of smart geeks. I was wrong.
The motion of an idea that the world needs is undeniable. I feel like I’m the caretaker of this idea, and I can’t recall the last time I had this much fun. I hope you will care about all of it as much as I do.
xo,mo
Love the idea and concept! You got this 👍.