The unseen trust
As the doctor politely asked me to climb onto the operating table where in a few moments people I had never met before would be slicing into my body, it struck me that our reality is a strange one indeed. Our entire existence is based on a trust that we do not examine to closely or even acknowledge. On the operating table I was placing my very life in stranger’s hands, trusting that they were qualified to operate, trusting that the Anesthetist would bring me back to consciousness. Trusting so many, many things.
We drive to work and trust that others have the capacity to operate their cars and follow road rules, as we pass them with centimeters to spare travelling at speeds that will kill. We buy our food from the store trusting that those that harvested or prepared it did so without poison. We place a letter in a box and trust that it will arrive where intended (ok most times).
The point is that every day we place our well-being and even our lives with others, people that we have never met and so cannot judge their worth. But we do it, without that trust our society would not function as it does. Do we ever recognise this unspoken dependence on others? Do we ever truly understand that our entire race is a single operating machine that may consist of individuals and yet can only function as a whole?
There are so many varying facts approached from economic, religious, scientific, logical and metaphysical perspectives that all point to the undeniable fact that we are one. The truth is all around us but unfortunately it is as unseen as the wind on a cloudless day.
Social networking, instant communication, global networks are all by-products of our evolution into realising that we are one. They are all making it easier to lower the barriers of the past that kept us in the illusion of ‘each man for himself’. The economic recession has brought home quite strongly the new reality that we must embrace if we are to survive this stage in our evolution.
So.. when next you feel the urge to shout at an assistant or feel irritation at the stranger who passes you, try to remember that in actuality you already trust them with your life, and from that remarkable place it is a short step to respect and kindness.
