Chances are you haven't heard of The Napkin, the Melon and the Monkey before. You won't find it on the bestseller list (yet!) nor is it a book you'd typically find being reviewed by a book group or setting on someone's coffee table.
So you may be asking, what could a napkin, a melon and a monkey possibly have to do with improving your health, or at least your success as a patient in the healthcare system?
In fact, I didn't read this book with the intent of sharing it with you. I read it because my friend Barbara Burke wrote it. It is a business book, written by a consultant who works in the customer service industry. You'd think it would require quite a leap to make it apply to patient empowerment, wouldn't you?
It turns out that this delightful tale translates far beyond its original intent, and provides plenty of good advice for us patients, whether we are struggling with a difficult disease, angry at a medical error, frustrated at a lack of diagnosis or lack of cooperation with a provider or payer, or any other hurdle we've found while trying to get the care we deserve.
The help you can find by reading The Napkin, the Melon and the Monkey won't come from good healthcare navigation advice; rather, it will be from a new attitude, a different way of looking at your situation and some unique steps you can take to improve it.
The Napkin, the Melon and the Monkey tells the story of Olivia, a wife and mother of two who, needing to boost the family's income, takes a job as a customer service rep in a utility company. Once her training is finished, she begins handling problems for the company's often disgruntled customers. As a result, she finds herself descending into behaviors that she really dislikes in herself. Her family isn't thrilled either. She snips at her kids, they bicker and fight, she and her husband begin to grow apart. Bottom line, she's miserable and doesn't know what to do about it because they need the paycheck.
Then Isabel comes into Olivia's life. A fellow customer service agent, Isabel shares her experiences, stories and wisdom, which (yes, you guessed it) relate to napkins, melons and monkies. Eventually Olivia becomes not only a better employee, but her family notices the improvement in her demeanor, too. The major positive changes in Olivia's life are a testament to Isabel's napkin, melon and monkey wisdom.
Patients and their advocates benefit by translating this fabled wisdom into ways to approach their challenges with the healthcare system. The subtitle, How to Be Happy and Successful at Work and in Life by Simply Changing Your Mind provides a clue. Some of the "aha!" moments are quite simple and straightforward, such as "The less I talk, the more I learn," or "Spreading my wings is the only way to fly." Others require a bit more contemplation, like, "People harmonize when they are tuned to the same frequency," or "Remember, we all share the same vine."
The Napkin, the Melon and the Monkey is a quick read with a long-lasting message. Learning to deal with your difficulties by accepting your situation, and approaching improvement through story-sharing, collaboration and giving back are very powerful. Those of us who have faced extreme difficulties in pursuit of the answers and help we needed can find more than just physical healing by reading this book. The messages will make us better people, will bring out the best in those around us, and will help us throughout a lifetime.
- Author: Barbara Burke
- Publisher: Front Wheel Learning, Barbara Burke
- Pages: 135
- Softcover Price: $16.99 US / $23.99 Canadian
- Website: The Napkin, the Melon and the Monkey
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