Trust

What is trust? It's the reliance we place in the integrity, strength, and ability of a person or an object. For example a mountain climber must place trust in equipment such as a sturdy cord of rope to carry his weight. And a parent must place trust in a bus driver's ability to get his or her child to school safely, and timely. Trust plays a huge role in our life, but the life we live plays a huge part in whether or not we are able to trust. I certainly do not trust people when I am walking down a street at night and a stranger passes me by. I had a gun pulled on me outside of a convenient store when I was 18, that fear alone has led me to not trust the night walkers. That's not to say that people are not still people, no matter what. Both good and bad come into this world, but every one deserves a shot a being good.

One night, I was walking to a friends house late, late at night. About half a block away I heard yelling and screaming. It was a drunken man and a woman engaging in your typical worldly drama. I stopped in concern, feeling that if I heard a blood curdling scream I  might have to rush towards the noise and play the part of a hero. The yelling stopped though, and I saw the man walk across the street. So I crossed the street and continued to my friends house. And as the man passed me I decided to trust him, but to be on guard. I spoke with him for a good 30 minutes about his life and what the fuss was all about. Learned a few things about people and how distrust can come from not fully understanding others. Or even worse, ourselves.

So I'm leaving on Tuesday to meet with three people who I have yet to know or even come to understand. They all have their own story, each one I'm sure different from the next. But all it really takes is one person to create a problem, and leave everyone else to clean up and deal with the mess. For all I know some of them could be violent, or even corrupt. Fact is, I could get murdered out there. No one would ever know. The lunacy of it all is that I'm still going. For starters, I trust myself and my life. I haven't gotten this far to vanish in the woods, hacked up and buried beneath the dirt. Secondly, though I do not know these people, they have given me no legitimate reasons to not trust them. Fear is often a greater cause for distrust. So what are we afraid of? Often times it's a loss. We don't want to lose what we have, so we distrust anything that could take that away from us.

Whether it's confidence, love, a child or a friend, we are all afraid of the thing or person that threatens our way of life. And a new comer is always the hardest to trust. New threats. How can you trust a man you don't know? That seems to be the question of the day doesn't it? Well this is where everything changes. If you meet a man, but do not trust him, then naturally the right thing to do is to give him a chance but to be on your guard. But if you seek to find bad in a person you will find it, and thus create your own perceptions based on your own biased judgments. Especially if at first your fears and feelings are premeditated defences, as you will then thrust these upon this other person. Leaving them no choice but to fall victim to your determinings.

I understand that handing out our trust is a somewhat sacred thing. That makes sense considering all the evil that takes place in this world. You can't just go trusting everyone; anything can happen to you by almost anyone out there in the world. Even close friends and family can hurt you and damage that trust. And in truth it takes a long time to build a really strong foundation of trust. But have you ever just met someone and thought to yourself wow... I really like and trust this person! Yet that person turns out to be a total douche bag? Most of us have so it should put us on guard for the next person we start to like. Oh man.. I'm rambling.

Okay, the point is you should never be too critical when it comes to giving people a chance. You may just pass up on a great bond and a great friendship. Don't be too unwilling to work with others and find a compromising solution. And above all of that, don't ever throw it all away just because you are scared. And if you truly feel like others do not deserve a shot at your trust... then perhaps others should not trust you in return? Either way, we should always be willing to trust. It's called the benefit of the doubt, learn it, live it, love it.