Trust

What is this thing called trust?

This which is immutable, invisible, immaterial.
This which we treasure so much and guard with our lives.
This which we value - perhaps - more than life itself.
This which is worth much more than gold or silver.
This is which is price-less, yet priceless.
This which is so fragile, so delicate, yet so powerful.
This which when broken, can never be mended.

It is the very essence of any relationship - trust. It is the soul which determines how we function or fail to. And we place that trust in people and systems everyday; we trust both friend and foe, stranger and kin. We trust doctors to make the right diagnosis, we trust politicians to speak for the people. We trust systems to govern our lives, we trust in the transcendental, the eternal. We call it faith, we call it belief. But a rose by any other name, we know instinctually what it is though we can never truly explain.

Yet this trust is so often broken ... and which each bond of faith that crumbles
we grow increasingly disillusioned and jaded.

But isn't the very existence of trust based on the knowledge that human nature cannot be trusted? Isn't trust needed because we always already anticipate betrayal, that broken vow? Why do we tell others narratives only to tell them not to reveal? Why do we place our lives in the palm of an 'unprovable' Being and do willingly what He bids?

Can anyone ever hold to trust absolutely and without compromise?

Paradoxically, we still hold on to the belief that trust is measured beyond measures. We feel rage and hurt when trust is broken particularly by those whom we call our own and hold near and dear. It is that which when torn can never be mended.

But why do we blame others for their carelessness, their loose tongue, their moral ineptitude, when we are ones who have mistrusted?

And we have mistrusted only because we've failed to see ourselves. There is no mistrust in others. There is only mistrust of the self.

How do we trust others when we cannot trust ourselves.

Can any of us really?