Trust

I was having trouble picking a topic this week.  Not really writer’s block, just couldn’t come up with a topic.

 I attended a wedding on Saturday in Denver.  I have known this couple for a short time.  In truth, they are close friends with my daughter-in-law and son.  Therefore, they are close to me.  They are a beautiful couple and their family story is heartwarming.  The wedding was beautiful, and super fun. As a true test of how engaged everyone was at the event, we all stayed until the very end and were all properly over-served.

 As I thought about this event, I started thinking about trust.  Trust is critical in any relationship, personal or business.  Trust seems easier to maintain in the beginning.  Probably because we want to believe in the trust that exists.  Sometimes we trust only to find out months later that we should not have trusted.  I was thinking about the rationale of those that prefer to trust and those that violate that covenant. 

I prefer to believe that we are able to maintain the trust we possess in the beginning.   The realization that trust was not given equally is just sad.

 As much as we profess that trust is important in our life, we somehow are able to look the other way when it comes to our political establishment.  I am completely baffled by the polls that indicate we have a lack of trust in our institutions.   The oddity is we do not trust the institutions made up of the people we elected.  Yet it appears that somewhere just shy of 50% of this country trust a twice impeached, multiple indicted ex-president.  He demonstrates over and over that he cannot be trusted and yet so many people do.

 I read a statistic that 60% of voters do not possess a college degree.  The people that makeup  60% have participated in a trustworthy relationship or have promised to be trusted.  Therefore, they must know the difference between trustworthy and untrustworthy.  Here we are settling in for a year and one-half of people clogging the media and pathways of communication with lies and untrustworthy commentary. 

A large majority of this country is ok with it.

 We stand in front of our friends, family, romantic partners,  and business associates speaking of the importance of trust.  To those same people, we continually promise to be trustworthy.  At the same time, we are able to rationalize the lack of trust and lies from our leaders.   Somehow believing that the outcome is acceptable to us.

A sad state of affairs….