Trust. Now that is a big issue for sure. Things have changed a lot even during my lifetime for that matter. I was born in a little village on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, Canada, and people literally did not used to lock their doors. Everyone trusted everyone.
In fact, it wasn’t even a concept that one considered because the petty theft that we think of in modern society virtually didn’t exist in that sense. So we were a trusting lot for the most part. Then, slowly, as we begin to age, I moved away from the village, and you run into circumstances that you have your trust. Shocked, if I could put it that way. People lie to you.
You have relationships that are broken. They break your heart. They can be intimate relationships or business relationships or friends, but slowly, that trust becomes somewhat eroded. I remember once working in a restaurant, elegant restaurant and the chef was actually stealing and he claimed that he was a cordon bleu chef when in the end, he was nothing but a ex convict. He’d been trained to cook in prison, and yet, everyone trusted him.
Everyone believed him. I used to be responsible for the cash in the evening, you know, and we’re a busy restaurant. Gosh. Sometimes the tabulations could be and this is a very long time ago, 50 years ago or so. The tabulations could be $34,000, a lot of money.
And you had to reconcile the receipts, the credit cards, the cash, this sort of thing. So at the end of the evening, I would sit at a big table and count the cash quite literally. And this chef that I’m referring to, he used to sit there as well and kind of the cash, if you will. So okay. This one particular evening, I was over.
The receipts totaled a certain amount and I had an extra $100. And I said, I don’t know what to do with this $100. And he said, Leon, that’s very easy. We split it 5050. The kitchen, meaning himself, The kitchen takes 50%, and the floor, meaning me, takes the other 50%.
So that be $50 a piece. A lot of money as I said before. I think this is something wrong here, but, okay, like, he knows. He seems to know, and he’s he’s quite assertive. And I’ve been in the business 35 years, this sort of thing, you know, and you’re young and you’re naive and you’re trusting.
So he took his $50 and I took mine, but I didn’t feel comfortable. So I spoke to the hotel manager, and I said, mister Witham, excuse me. The chef just suggested that we divide the over, and this Bill Witham, he got quite irate. What are you talking about? What’s going on here?
Give me that $50. But he wouldn’t take the money away from the chef because he was a Cordon Bleu chef. But in the end, he wasn’t. He was just that ex con that I’d alluded to earlier. So life goes on, doesn’t it?
We learn our lessons about trust. Now we’re told when it comes to the news media to trust nothing because it’s virtually all fake news. And we begin to suspect everything, don’t we? We question everything. Everything.
The intentions of all people are questionable and I think that might not be a healthy thing. So I’m really aspiring to be a trusting person. Now, my story. In the last little while, and, you know, I always think that if you possibly can, you should surround yourself with elegant and beautiful things. They don’t necessarily have to be expensive, but it can be the certain type of item that speaks to you in its beauty, its color, its design, that sort of idea.
So I was in a shop one day and I spot these 6 ornate cocktail forks, tiny forks that you would use for canapes or pickles or things along this nature. And then I was invited to go hiking in the mountains. Great. So normally, when we went hiking, you would take your lunch and then you would take additional snacks, perhaps cherry tomatoes or certain other small items, perhaps grapes that you would use with these forks. And so I proceeded to put them inside my box of vegetables and pickles and tomatoes and this sort of thing.
So off for a walk, and then we eventually stop for lunch and everyone begins to share what they have. So I ate my sandwich and then I opened my box and I have my 6 forks and people kind of liberally take them and begin to use them. And then suddenly, the devil jumped on my shoulder and I thought to myself, wait a moment. No one else has any forks like I do? What if there is a thief amongst us?
And come on, Leon. What a ridiculous thought, But it sticks with me. I can’t seem to shake it, and it began to dominate my thinking over the lunch. I’m trying to track I’m trying to track these these forks, you know. Does that woman over there, does she have 2 of my forks?
This kind of nonsense, you know. The mind plays itself, I tell you. So, eventually, we finished lunch and I’m waiting for all the forks to be, of course, sub sconded, lost, stolen, and they’re all returned. And I felt very embarrassed, and I was thankful that I had said nothing to anyone about what was running around in my mind because it would have been laughable. Laughable to say the least.
So what does that tell you? At least it tells me that I have to learn to truly trust more. Because, you know, in my experience in life, people are mostly good. People are mostly kind. People are mostly loving and people are mostly honest.
They’re honest. We do have a moral component to who we are. So we can trust. We really can trust each other. And I think, really, when we begin to trust each other, we will begin to feel better.
Now how do you begin the process of being more trusting? Well, I think the first thing you have to do is stop looking at your social media at your phone in the morning for the first one or two hours. Just ignore the phone. Make your bed, say your prayers, listen to your affirmations, shave as in my case, and then have some breakfast, and then eventually get to the stream of negativity which is mostly in the phone. Right?
There is very very little good when it comes to the news. Mostly, it’s bad. Humanity’s bad. It’s all over. Civilization is going to die.
And we know this is not true from personal experience. Have you ever been shot? No. Stabbed? No.
Blown up? No. Had things stolen? Maybe. On the travels in Europe, things do happen, but there are only things and for the most part, we can trust and, of course, we can love.
For you know what they say. You know what they say when it comes to trust. Critical thinking is everything. It’s loving. It’s trusting, and critical thinking is great. God bless. Bye bye.