We hear a great deal about the need to trust, the danger of trusting, whether people can be trusted, and what happens when we’re betrayed.
10 minute writing: What does trust mean to you? If you say that you trust someone, what do you mean? Does it depend on who you’re trusting, and about what?
Here are a few other issues to consider, either in reflection or in writing.
Sometimes someone means well but just can’t cope.
What is the difference between trusting someone and placing expectations on them that might be unwelcome? To what extent, and how, does the other person signal a willingness to meet those expectations?
What are some of the different ways in which we trust people — e.g., to be monogamous, to keep secrets, not to do something that would harm us, to be competent at their job, to know what’s best for us? What about trusting institutions, such as a church, bank, insurance company, medical practice?
10 minute writing: What does trust mean when you’re the one being trusted? In what ways are you trusted by others, what does that mean that you have to do, how do you feel about it?
Here are some quotations that might serve as prompts for further writing:
The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them. — Ernest Hemingway
Trust no friend without faults, and love a woman, but no angel. — Doris Lessing
“I don’t trust people who don’t love themselves and tell me, ‘I love you.’ … There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.” — Maya Angelou
Trust is like a vase, once it’s broken, though you can fix it, the vase will never be same again. — Walter Anderson
Because you believed I was capable of behaving decently, I did. — Paolo Coelho
Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him. — Booker T. Washington
