The fullness of the universe and its interrelations is unknowable. Reality is not only irretrievable and unrepeatable, it is outside conception in its vastness and minutiae. But bodies may expect outcomes similar to their experience.
“Trust” is the belief a relationship is reliable. The potential dangers call for the highest level of discernment, but not everything must be known to determine truths or find the way.
Like so many virtues warped into weakness, trust has been a difficult thing for me to cultivate or appreciate. Our society is formed on so many lies, half-truths, and hidden motives. Friends, family, politicians, every sort of person we’re expected to trust, I can list all the ways I’ve been personally let down. Trust is no more than a series of scars and we should know better than to collect more.
That this is the way we’re made to feel reveals the fundamental power and necessity of trust. We are not solitary units of rational mind; our very cognition depends on social integration and interrelation. The capacity to trust empowers us to think and act literally beyond our own selves, and networks of trust are as resilient and powerful as any duplicity. Thus they are a target.
Beginning the Cycle with “Trust” was an obvious decision as I surveyed the calendar. If I’m to expect anyone to take me seriously in my good intentions, or to release any suspicion of grift – for attention, money, or otherwise – I have to be fully worthy of my readers’ and viewers’ trust. Underneath it all, though, I also have to trust myself.
Learning to mistrust inborn or conditioned thoughts and impulses was crucial to overcoming a calamitous lack of perspective, but has left me hyper aware of my own failings and inconstancy. Self-awareness thus becomes trusting oneself to fail, to be useless, irrelevant, an imposter, rather than trusting oneself to change, grow, overcome, and bring peace. It’s time to reevaluate.