Trust

Yesterday's reading included Doubting Thomas.  So what are you like on trust?  Simon P Walker has been publishing his new book online and in Chapter 4 writes about trust and how we learn to trust (or not) others and ourselves in our early life, and how this affects us as we get older.  It also reminded me of this post I read a little while ago on how different attitudes to trust can affect us.

I know that I find it easier to trust myself than I do others.  And that is now I am so much better at trusting others!  In my previous job it took me a long time before I could escape from the trap of thinking that no one else could do it as well as I could (well, they couldn't could they ;)) so I had to do it myself.  It took a long time to learn that lesson, and it was one that I thought that I had learnt.  However, when push comes to shove I find that I do not trust others L  What I had learnt to do was to let them do things that didn't matter.  Building a trust in others that is not there is hard work, and the only way I know of doing it is by continuing to do a little more of it all the time.  The problem is that I know I am going to get let down at some point.  It isn't trusting because it always works, it is trusting knowing that sometimes it doesn't, but doing it anyway.

The Police Again

Another example of bad behaviour by the police - this time costing them compensation - came to my attention (h/t Graham Wilson) in the video below.

I have blogged on bad police behaviour before and am doing so again at least in part because I also happened to see one of the programs where police are videoed dealing with traffic offenders - not my normal viewing.  The program made me wonder whether there is a culture within the police that makes incidents like this one, and like the others I highlighted more likely.  In the TV program - which I presume came with police approval - we saw mostly young people being stopped for driving offences, and the police were overwhelmingly sarcastic in their dealings with the offenders.  There seemed to be a lack of respect for the other person and it is this lack of respect that I find worrying.  It is perhaps a double concern as when I was stopped for speeding the policeman was very polite (I was driving a Jaguar at the time but wasn't yet ordained) - is the lack of respect based on their perception of positional power as described here?

Either way I find it worrying if the police feel that they do not have to show respect to people.

Trust=possibility of being hurt

I was discussing trust with someone the other day and it suddenly came to me that if you can't face the possibility of being hurt then you can't trust.  Reflecting on my time my previous career I now recognise that although I thought that I trusted the people I worked with (although it took me years to reach that point - ever heard "I can do it better myself"?) I only trusted them with things which wouldn't hurt me if they went wrong, and I suspect that some would argue that I didn't trust them anyway.

Even as I write this I am not sure that it is true, after all if the network went down badly then that could have hurt me professionally - even though I still know nothing about networks.  However, perhaps the key is in that little word "professionally".  If the network went down would it change my opinion of myself?  I don't think so.

And how does this fit in with trusting God?  If we trust in God will we not get hurt?  Afraid not - as last Sundays reading told us our faith makes no difference to the suffering we undergo - or as it was put by the Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley (thanks Archdruid - had to preach an emergency sermon and this post came in handy):

Bad stuff happens to good people. 

Good things happen to good people. 

Bad stuff happens to bad people. 

Good things happen to bad people.

And Richard Rohr, in his daily meditation, adds:

If there is nothing in your life to cry about, if there is nothing in your life to yell about, you must be out of touch.

I have spent many years avoiding pain, and the echo of that is still within me to the extent that occasionally I need to be reminded.  With thanks to my mates who do remind me!

What is it about taking photos?

I recently found this story about a man being arrested for 8 hours for taking photos in a town centre.  I was horrified that someone could be arrested in those circumstances, but slightly suspicious that he appeared to know his legal rights very well.  I consider myself reasonably well informed, but had no idea of the things he knew inside out.  However, I then found this link to a very similar story about a student who was also arrested for apparently taking photos.  Both stories are supported by video of the events and to me it appears that the police were getting wound up because the people would not give them a straight answer - when they had no requirement to do so.

What is happening?  It is possible that the police had reasons to suspect something suspicious - but from the videos that I saw it seemed more likely that the most suspicious behaviour was refusing to supply a name and address.  This has all left me angry - but also feeling impotent to do anything.

Having written that I have just written to my MP - something that I have done before as part of organised campaigns, but this is the first time that I have done so unprompted.

Christian Aid Update:

One in six children worldwide is involved in child labour, which harms their mental, physical or emotional development. Give 10p for every year of your childhood you were free to play in your spare time.

 Well, although I had the odd Saturday job I didn't have to have it.  And I wasn't made (or even asked) to do chores around the house, so I reckon that is 1.80.