Friday Shuffle - Trust But Verify Edition

B has decided to have a new computer built by a computer store that's across the street from us. They've given us a good price and should it need servicing they'll fetch it and tote it back to their shop.

B called them up this morning to add one more thing to his wish list and said I would be coming right over to sign the order contract. The salesman asked that we make a down payment as this is a custom order and said "It's not that we don't trust you, Herr G, but we have done custom work before and then delivery wasn't taken.". B assured them it wasn't offensive at all to ask for a down payment. There's trust and then there's just being sensible.

Later in the afternoon as I drove to the grocery store I stopped at a car wash to relieve my car of it's crust of filthy crud. It was one of those automatic ones where you sit in the car and the little traction thingy drags you through. I know of people that get freaked out with this sort of car wash with all the brushes and rags and sprayers flapping around them but that doesn't bother me. What does make me sit up and pay attention is the traction thingy itself. I know it's not likely but I can't help feeling sometimes that I'm going to smack into the back of the BMW ahead of me - the one I can't see because of all the brushes and rags and sprayers flapping around me. I just have to put trust in the fact that this car wash runs all day, every day and if cars went careening into each other they wouldn't be in business.

Trust is probably the thing that allows humans to live with others. I'm not talking about living as various nations or various religions but living together as a group instead of everyone being a hermit. If we didn't have the most basic trust in others, we'd constantly be out for ourselves alone.

Our days are filled with tests of our trust. We drive down the street trusting that the guy on the other side of the road won't decide to drive down our lane. We trust friends with our confidences. We trust that when we operate something mechanical that it will work and won't injure us. We trust that our family members will fulfill their roles. We trust that when we eat we won't be poisoned.

Babies have the most trust. They rely on someone to care for their every need and that's what convinces me that basic trust is inborn.

Of course trust can be broken. The crazy or drunk driver is out there. Machines break and foods are impure. Friends and family vow that they are trustworthy and betray us. A broken trust within a family may be the worst. The family is our trust core and damage there is lasting.

I was thinking about trust vs. faith and decided that they're not quite the same. Trust is given when we've experienced evidence that someone or something will give the results we expect. Faith is when we know we'll get the expected results but have no evidence to back it up. I trust my husband with my life because I know him so well but it was a leap of faith that made me move to Germany to marry him.

Time to shuffle.

1. Jessica - Allman Brothers Band
2. Still - Alanis Morrissette
3. Another Sunny Day - Belle & Sebastian
4. Cigarette Dangles - Pursuit of Happiness
5. O What A Thrill - The Mavericks
6. You Belong To Me Now - Candy Butchers
7. Locomotive Breath - Jethro Tull
8. Fool In The Rain - Led Zeppelin
9. Sympathy For The Devil - Rolling Stones
10. Here Comes My Baby - Cat Stevens

And that's why I trust Bixente the iPod.