the americans got something right

The American's got it right. We often hear the little modern adage and saying about banks and at on little plaques at point-of-sales counters: In God we trust, all others pay cash. Trust is a big word that we so often hear and throw about, sometimes so carelessly and flippantly, but yet, its a word most of us can hardly grasp. Its a deep word that has is so multi-layered we try and peel and discover but there are always still more layers. It is so multi-faceted we find minds spinning off tangents that it puts the great MC Escher to shame.

Trust. TRUST. Trust. Trust. Trust. Trust. Trust. trust.

Its a mind boggling word no matter how you look at it, how you write it.

I once knew a girl who used to get herself in trouble because she trusts so easily. Every guy, every friend, every occassion: she's somehow able to always trust in people. Always ready and willing to take their word at face value. Always willing to give the benefit of doubt and to the other person. To trust. To believe that promises made would be kept without question, to believe that people were innately good, kind and all the other soppy stuff that goes with the "you are trustworthy" turf. To her, Trust is simply given- up front with no strings attached.

Then there are the lot of us who come from the opposing camp. The "trust needs to be earned" camp. Maybe due to past experiences, previous occassions of personal betrayals and disappointments. We look for and read all the fine print and hidden agendas. We scrutinise and constantly weigh and measure the things, events, words and the people around us. Its a reflex, almost, an enduing battle scar from our past disappointments, our innate cynicism, our jadedness or, as my friend Pete says, our life experiences.

And all hell breaks loose when a carefully built up Trust is shattered. When a grave promise is renegaded upon. When someone we love takes our love, our faith and our Trust and throws it back in our faces. It knocks us off our feet. It winds us. It crushes us. It blows our mind. It leaves us angry, pained and lost. It makes us feel the wieght of our human-ness. It amplifies our inadequacies and magnifies our insecurities. It stuns the system and leaves us speechless. It sometimes even cripples us: physically, emotionally. And in its own way, it changes us. Forever, and then some.

And, it brings us to our knees.

And sometimes, that's exactly where we need to be.