Trust

I was looking around me on my daily trip a few days ago and I've noticed a young mother wither her children, twin girls. The usual scenario - mount the vehicle, then the driver floors it and everyone has that split second when it's secure or stumble for each of the passengers not located on any of the available seats. The only thing about this case was that she had both her hands occupied with each of her girls. (Bus drivers ought to pay attention to their passengers. Nobody is a potato bag or such...)

Taking a few steps toward a set of seats, an elder man got off the seat he was on to allow the two girls to seat one next to the other, then he started acting - normally and perfectly logical - as a grandfather to them. Chit chat, questions, smiles, all that stuff. The mother was OK with it, too.

I was then thinking of those times when I was reading about how one should raise their child: "don't talk to any stranger!" and all that. The world we live on would have turned the situation I was watching unfold right before me like some sort of a trade: the man offered his seat to one of the girls, thus the mother (as legal caretaker of the minor) was in his debt - debt which was now payed by extending her tolerance enough to allow the elder person to behave as a grandfather. It's not over analysis, it's a mere hypothesis, with its arguments along.

But that's just... cold. Like, ice cold. I have attended the baptism of a boy today, the son of a close team member from my first workplace. The ceremony was neat, the parents were so happy and so serene, despite all the noise and tension the process implies. Even the little one was quiet, despite all the fuss and hassle around him. It was his prime time, nonetheless, so why worry, right? :-) The priest spoke to all those present, to the end of the ceremony. "God did not create us so as to roam this world alone. In order for that to happen, however, we need to trust each other."

I was at that moment watching the little fellow crossing the boundary between pagan and Christian and I was reflecting on what the priest was telling us. We are cast into this world with an unconditioned trust and love toward our caretaker(s). However, once we begin figuring out how we can provide for ourselves, our trust is progressively defiled till it's turned into a form of taking products and services for granted from others, not necessarily close to us. We take for granted all that which we can buy.

That's not to be accused for, nonetheless. Nevertheless, it's a real shame one has lost the will to trust those around them and, moreover, it's a petty the society we build with each of our attitudes and actions makes no room for this trust. The world we live in is getting colder and colder, as the time moves on further away from us, despite all the global warming we witness. And, just as we make no room for other creatures on this planet with all sorts of direct and indirect actions and their consequences, we make no room for trust to build up.

It's a terrible world we're building.