A Matter of Trust...
This will be a lengthy philosophical rant.
Something happened over the weekend that got me to thinking about trust. Its amazing how many of the people I know suffer greatly from trust issues. Trust is essentially faith. Faith is a word that is often linked to religion and the existance of God...but I contend its no different than trust. Those of you that believe in God usually do so to a much more significant degree than you do people. There are some people you can trust with your life. There are also people you can't trust to leave the house. Oh, BTW, did I mention geometry was one of my favorite courses in High School?
I loved geometric proofs. You all remember the questions...."Given. Relevant facts...Prove this equals this". You use the postulates and theorums to form a logical road map to get you the answer you desire. Euclid's 'Elements' would never go on to resolve our personal trust issues, but the logical use of proofs and understood beliefs can work much the same way.
Given...blah, blah, blah. PROVE...Trust = Courage. How much are our trust issues simply selfishness? At its core, faith and trust are just words for a belief that someone or something will not disappoint us or inconvenience our lives. If you believe that last statement to be true, perhaps I can stretch you a little further with this one. Lack of trust is in effect the fear of being disappointed or inconvenienced. So I guess Lack of Trust = Fear. The opposite of fear is courage. The opposite of Lack of Trust is Trust...obviously. So is it perhaps not so big a stretch to say to trust is courageous?
We often talk of trust as something that is earned. But given the 'hypothesis' from the previous paragraph, Is trust really earned or do we pass off the responsibility for our lack of courage onto someone else? So often we place responsibility on others, but in reality we are just allowing fate to steer us rather than taking control of our own lives. This is the fundamental difference between being proactive and reactive. I would much rather control my fate than be resigned to a fate I am helpless to avoid.