Trust, the Ultimate Act of Forgiveness

“To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity and trust.”

— Henry David Thoreau

In thinking over this quote it occurs to me that perhaps ‘trust’ is akin to ‘forgiveness’ because without forgiveness you cannot trust. Because let’s face it, every single one of us has had our trust violated at some point or another. The pain it causes can be great, but the fruit of such a violation often causes bitterness and seclusion to take root if we allow it to.

To be a trusting person requires forgiveness. To step out in faith, knowing trust can be broken again, but not allowing a single person or a single action to dictate our hope for a better experience moving forward. Perhaps we are the ones who will lay the next brick in someone else’s wall because we too may violate someone’s trust, intentionally or unintentionally.

But it is no kind of life to live where we become suspicious of everyone and in protecting ourselves we actually do the most harm by locking everyone out. Because seclusion is a kind of pain too and in some ways the greatest pain there is. If the lockdowns taught us nothing else, it is how destructive isolation is to our mental health. So, trust. Perhaps not everyone, but those who you believe truly care.