What is Your Emotional “R Naught”?

“You couldn’t be in his presence without feeling a bit of his joy.”  Nancy Agee, RN, CEO Carilion Clinic

Everyone called him “Mr. Martin,” and with his trademark white Stetson hat, rose on his lab coat lapel,  and welcoming smile, he served as the greeter at the main entrance of Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital up until days before his recent death at the age of 81.   And while directing people, assisting them out of their cars, and helping to transport them may not seem like the description of one’s “dream job,” for Mr. Martin, it was exactly what he felt called to do, and did it for almost 64 years. 

Whenever I was in his presence, even for a brief moment (usually while rushing through the hospital lobby to get to patient rounds), I always left that encounter feeling better about myself, my work, and whatever might have been burdening me at the time.  He loved people and loved life, and it showed in everything he did.  Indeed, his joy was contagious.  I suspect we all know a “Mr. Martin.” 

The emerging neuroscience of “emotional contagion” indicates that we all have “Mr. Martin potential.”  Studies show that humans synchronize with the emotional state (both positive and negative) of those around them, either unconsciously or consciously.  This emotional convergence appears to have both physiological and neurological triggers, and can happen from one person to another, or in a larger group.  

Which brings me to R0 (pronounced “R naught”), a mathematical term that most of us were vaguely if at all familiar with prior to the COVID pandemic.  The R0  number reveals the average number of susceptible people who will contract a contagious disease from one person with that disease.  If there was an R0 for joy, Mr. Martin’s would have been quite high. 

This has left me wondering that if there were such a measurement, what my own “emotional R0” might be, and if its contagion would be “misery loves company” or more along the lines of kindness, compassion, hope, and joy.   In the upcoming week, I consciously intend to spread more of the later.  Seems a wonderful way to honor the legacy of the “Mr. Martin’s” of the world, and to uplift both those around me … and myself.  Will you join me?

To learn more about Mr. Martin, here is an NBC news tribute to him from October 31, 2021 in their weekly series “A Life Well Lived.” https://www.nbc.com/today/video/douglas-martin-heart-and-soul-of-roanoke-memorial-hospital-dies-at-81/127397931