Mark Chatterton
Tue,20 Apr 2010
Mark Chatterton
1066
View Related
Trust is a very emotive subject and concept. Yet it is something that we do everyday, usually without thinking about it. If you do think about trust, there are hundreds of things that we do each day where we exercise trust. For instance right at the start of the day, we trust that the alarm clock will go off and wake us up, so we are not late for work. We trust that when we go downstairs the fridge is still working and the food we eat will be fresh and not make us ill. We trust that when we get in our car to go to work that it will start. Or that the train or bus we catch to work will turn up and won’t break down.
When it comes to trusting our fellow human beings, most of us will have had experiences where we have trusted someone, only to be badly let down or even betrayed by the person we trusted, with the result that we have been hurt badly. Sometimes the trust between friends breaks down, or between husband and wife, or between different members of a family. Or you can feel betrayed at work when a work colleague gets promotion over you and the boss that you trusted has not done what he promised he would do. Then there are all sorts of people with power who we thought we could trust, only to find out that they can’t be trusted.
There's been a lot about trust in the news over the past few weeks. Yet again our MPs have abused our trust in their power. This time it’s been MP’s claiming that they can influence parliament for your company at a cost of £5,000 a day! So called public servants serving their own interests rather than those of the people they are meant to serve. Then the Roman Catholic Church has been in the news with the revelation of a big cover of priests sexually abusing boys in their care in countries all around the world including Ireland and
the USA. Thankfully the Pope met up with some abuse victims in Malta recently to hear their stories and acknowledge that the abuse did really take place. A step forward in the healing process.
Just who can you trust? It’s a very difficult question to answer. We are naturally trustworthy, but we hear case after case of people not trusting each other. That’s why there’s so many wars and violence in the world. Nations don’t trust other nations and so build up a massive arsenal of weapons, ready to use in case the other one attacks them. Individuals find they can’t trust other individuals, whether it be friends, family, or people in the community who have control over our lives such as politicians, councillors, policemen, doctors or religious leaders.
With a general election coming up in Britain in the next few weeks, we will be hearing a lot from the different political parties about how they are the right party to govern Britain. Again it’s all about trust. Can you trust them to deliver their promises for change? Or do you think they will backtrack on what they said, once they get in power? Are you going to bother to vote at all? Or do you think the result is a foregone conclusion?
In the end, it’s up to each one of us individually, this question of trust. If no one trusted each other, where would we be? Constantly being suspicious of everyone we didn’t know, every stranger we met and inevitably fighting with each other, as happens in some families, and some communities, and not just in Soap operas on the television. Not a very nice scenario. The best thing each of us can do is to move forward, trusting our instincts first of all, then developing relationships with the people we meet, the people we work with and of course the people we live with.
trust : freinds : politicians : priests : Cathoic Church : general election : intuition :
trust : freinds : politicians : priests : Cathoic Church : general election : intuition :
What are Tags?. View articles or events that contain the above words.
Post Article:
Submit Your Own Article