bumbering around

Have you trusted someone completely?

Of course we use the word regularly but have you considered what trust actually means?

I had never really thought about it …until just recently.

Your personal  barometer sits somewhere on the trust continuum depending on personal character and lived experiences.

We trust that the food we buy is not contaminated, we trust our doctors and teachers, we trust the taxi driver and pilot, we trust the bank and we trust our family and friends to love and protect us.

Trust is an important theme underpinning classical  literature and the lyrics of pop music and  then there is the way trust is portrayed in Hollywood movies …

The typical love triangle…Casablanca

The classic spy thriller…Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

SciFi action…. remember how hard it was to trust Arnie in Terminator  2

Disney classics …think of Scar in The Lion King

Political and legal series …I mean who could forget Francis Underwood in House of Cards?

Recently I found myself in a place where I had to place my trust in someone so completely that I gave away all of my power and the experience made me think about what trust really means.

I met Joki in Cambridge last year …we were both students in an intensive teaching program and one evening she invited me to come and teach in her school in Nanjing China…..

I didn’t even know where Nanjing was but in the spirit of bumbering around I said sure why not.

I am not sure that I actually thought it would happen but Jo said ‘trust me!’

Over the next 9 months I continued bumbering around different exotic locations around the world whilst Jo returned home and began the process of getting me to China.

It was upon arrival I realised the extent of the trust factor….note to reader ….I don’t speak any Chinese!

I was completely in the hands of another person …I just followed Jo around …a bit like a puppy really..

Signing an employment contract, opening a bank account, renting an apartment, buying a SIM card and other basic daily activities.

Each transaction was conducted completely in Chinese and I simply signed what needed to be signed and  handed over the money I was asked to hand over.

I realised that I was in the position of a child ….it reminded me of how my children were when growing up ….they trusted me completely!

Once  adult hood  is reached we loose this innocence of complete trust and whilst I understand why this happens, the feeling of complete trust in another human is enormously liberating and takes you back to that innocence even if for just a short time.

It may not be the experience for everyone but it is one I will treasure!

Happy bumbering