Trust

Trust just doesn't happen. Its something that grows over time and is nurtured.
Understanding a persons motive is very much a part of trust. What does the person have to gain by persuading me on an idea, subject or item. How will they benefit by doing so?
The question of who to trust or not to trust comes up more the older we get. How many times do you need to be stung by a bee to feel that all bees will sting you. How many times will selfishness stand in the way of kindness to convince You that all people are in it for themselves?
As children, we trust. Heck, we trusted our parents when they said Santa was coming. Right. Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny. All broken dreams and preparation for the real world and the question of trust or not. When trust is lost, it sometimes is Never recovered.
Understanding that good people do good things for others for the bettering of themselves is a form of selfishness that pans out to do good things. Again the motive is there. Its just in this case understanding it allows one to trust.
I love the moment at the shop when the customer realizes that I'm not there to sell them a recumbent. I'm only there to help them buy one. Somewhere they figure out my motive is just to get them what they want and get them on the road. If there was any motivation of doing so its to see them justify my existence and the sport of recumbent cycling. Having them spread the news. Like planting a garden of sorts. Johnny Appleseed so to speak.
I wont care when someone in the future clames the there the cause of getting everybody riding recumbents. Its going to happen. Gary Fisher really didn't start it all with mountain bikes, Each and every rider in fact did. One person convinced another with there mutual trust for each other and before you knew it, almost everyone was the first to ride one. By the way, Albert Pope and his group of designers invented the Mountain Bike, They just didn't know it.
The worst thing about Trust is when you do and the Trust is broken. When the real motive comes out of why a person chose to be trusted. That's when when "Don't Trust" come to play and the poison is spread by a persons selfishness.
As a whole, I like to think people are good. The ones that don't speak out and are busy doing things for others stand out in my mind as the best in the world. The motives of the untrusted sometime shadow the ones that are good and have you feeling that everyone is bad or with there lifestyles, forced to be bad.
The closing of each recumbent sale is the true sign of trust. The buyer trusts the salesperson that what there spending their hard earned money on is right.
Trust is a powerful thing. To trust and to be trusted is a human feature that should never be abused or taken for granted.