I want to take a moment to talk about trust a little bit.
Lately, I have been staying at people’s houses in my travels. I use a website, where I just rent a room, and stay in their house. Of course, before I do, I check out their “references” – and they, I assume, check out mine.
The issue of trust comes up a bit – will the person hurt me in the middle of the night. It came up when I was in Ireland, and there was no lock on my bedroom door. Was the lady I rented from going to come in and hurt me. It came up in New Orleans, when the marine boyfriend with magazines like “guns and ammo” in the bathroom of the girl I rented from watched her place for the weekend – again with no lock on the door.
It comes into play every time I meet a stranger on my travels and create a relationship with them.
I think about it, when some ladies four year old kid comes over to me and starts talking at the airport, knowing that she probably feels she can’t trust me, the stranger, when there probably are few strangers safer for her kid to talk to in the world.
It is an issue, when my own child disappears for under a minute at a public event – even my almost thirteen year old still creates a little anxiety for me still.
I can’t trust others, and others can’t trust me.
Of course, we all have reasons not to trust. We watch the news, we have been hurt by those we trusted, and even those we didn’t trust!
The issue for us as modern man, is that trust of our fellow man is at the heart of any relationship, and as trust continues to erode in society, what that really means is that the quality of relationships erodes as well.
One thing I do wonder is if the fear of trust is greater than the risk of trusting and being wrong. I would love to see a study which quantifies the risk of trusting.
Meaning that, many people are scared of flying due to hearing about airplane accidents, even though statistically, it is much safer than driving.
Is trust the same way? Have we as a society fallen pray to a overstated fear or is there a real issue at hand.
Having put myself at minimal risk a few times, my gut is that it is the former. If that’s the case, we need to do something about that, and put a more popular (and realistic notion) to the fear of trust!