Trust

"Love is acceptance, respect and trust." - my Master
"Trust is earned, it is not given away!" - Commander Worf

So, which is it? Having discovered, too late, that Truth is not accessible in any predictive way, how can we soldier on and have relationships? I won't ask, "why have relationships", as the answer is self-evident. Back to the first definition, acceptance can be rocky, with the very great differences that we encounter among people, and respect can be hard to come by, given that those differences often bring us into conflict, even just over something like how to organize a kitchen. (The old saying is: you can't have two women in a kitchen. And I am in some ways one of them.) But the real risk is in trust. Worf is right, but the Masters are right, too. Two different levels of being...

We came down to duty in the evaluation of Truth. I say that trust is the flip side of duty: no one will want you to do anything for them if you are a "confidence man" (funny term, that) or otherwise unreliable. In the old Western TV shows, someone was always saying, "A man is only as good as his word." I touched on that with my description of personal integrity. But to me, that term is completely unrelated to any other persons at all, it is entirely inward. Can we turn it inside out and bring duty to our relationships in the form of being trustworthy? We can try.

But the bigger fish is still trusting other people. How do we get at that?

We can go with definition #2 and wait for people to prove themselves. Fine, but how do you decide whom to trust? Be paranoid and never leave your house, or just be naive and sincere and get taken like a rube? Have to use intuition. And, as the word says, it can only be taught inwardly. "Good Judgement comes from experience, Experience comes from bad judgement." Karma and consequences to the rescue, ensuring that each person gets exactly the lessons they need.

So what about that first definition? Does anyone want to take a swing at how to manifest that? I would say, if I can trust myself, then I can trust others. I mess up, and I make good on it, so why wouldn't others do the same? If they make good on it, then fine. But what if there is a permanent cost? Again, look at the cost of not trusting people. For some people, they can get by, except they realize how MANY faceless people they are trusting without ever thinking of it: all the other drivers on the road, the people who bring your food, build your appliances, your home, the tools you use, govern the world you live in, police, fire and military... If you think of it, you must realize that you have already naively given your trust to a great many people. So why not simply make it conscious, via gratitude, prayer for those who help, even if you don't know them at all, and... Paying attention to everyone?

What about those permanent costs? Jesus was willing, even though he knew in his Realization, what was going to happen. For those of us falling short of that, consider the poem "Checkmate" by Rumi.

and Wake Up!