The Initial Issue With Establishing Trust

Trust is.....everything. Our employers trust us to do our jobs, our kids trust us to protect and educate them, our spouses trust that we'll do what we say. Or last this is the ideal. Because trust, like common sense isn't so common. We ask for non-compete clauses, we ask for certificates of indentured service (also known as marriage), we ask kids to behave so they're 'worthy' of sustenance and gifts, we ask nations to hold peace with the threat of mutually assured destruction. Trust is not just a word, it is a state of being and you'll not find it nearly often as you'd like. For I too have extracted 'promises' in the hope of simply having faith in anothers good intentions. And when looked at in relief, the picture can be disheartening at times. Because we see extraordinary displays of trust everyday like trusting a pilot to fly, a train conductor to safely deposit us to our destinations, when crisis and catastrophe strike perfect strangers hold each other up when the world has crumbled right around.

But where did the trust of everyday interactions go? And to be clear the term, 'a good faith effort' in beginning the negotiation and subsequent binding of social contracts, business contracts, relationships contracts, etc. is an excellent start. It means for a brief window, both sides are open to vulnerability, the foundation of establishing trust and then building on it.

My sincere hope is that people learn what trust really means and acts on it. When you're in a partnership you expect your partner or partners to have your back and you expect it because you trust them. But remember that when we decide to 'contract' our partners with extracted promises and try to quid pro quo everything, you start to forget what trust even looks like. Then we're simply burdensome obligations to one another and that's no way to practice healthy love. A healthy thrives on the rush of vulnerability and the faith in good intentions can drive the hurt of betrayal away. Let's love with open hearts, it ain't easy, but the alternative is just so blah, ya know?