I'm trustworthy. Being trustworthy isn't an unusual skill some people
don't develop and others do. It's not a special gift. Neither is it a
talent. Trustworthiness isn't something I was born with. It's not
something I have. Nor is being trustworthy something I do. Rather, it's
something I be. Or, spoken with
rigor,
it's something I say I am.
To be trustworthy, I don't have to impose and enforce integrity in a so
called fallen state of being untrustworthy.
Neither do I have to add anything to my life to be trustworthy. I don't
have to rethink, reconstitute, rearrange or reset the rules within the
state of being untrustworthy to be trustworthy. I don't have to modify
anything in my conduct or in my behavior. Rather, to be trustworthy,
the state of being untrustworthy in the past has to be
completed then taken out of the future of who I really am.
Since we're already always who we really are (think about
it: it's almost an oxymoron), being trustworthy is always
accessible like a possibility.
And if I say to you I'll protect you with my life, if I promise
I'll uphold your
confidentiality,
if I make a vow I'll maintain your privacy like it's my sacred
duty to maintain it, like it's my calling to
take it on (and my
privilege
too), is it ever OK to speak outside of these boundaries about what
goes on within them?
When you've trusted me with your safety, when you've made the keys
to the kingdom available and given me carte
blanche to open as many doors as I'm bold enough and
audacious enough to attempt to open with them, when you've invited me
into your living room and shed any and all semblances of protection so
there's nothing in the way of being with you, totally vulnerable, naked
without barriers, who's the one to author the policy statement
decreeing how much of this intimacy can be shared with the world? Who
says which components of it are appropriate to make available for
public scrutiny, and which aren't? Who decides the
appropriateness of trust? Who makes up if trust is
sometimes or if it's eternal?
If I'm somewhere else on
the planet,
if I'm far away from where I was when I promised you I'll
protect you by not revealing confidentialities, privacies, or personal
exchanges, is it necessary to keep that promise when the likelihood is
remote that revealing confidentialities, privacies, or personal
exchanges will cause any problems for you? Even if it's
remotely remote, is that the line in the sand of trust
over which it's OK for me to step? How far away do I have to be for it
to be OK to share our exchanges with impunity, both for myself as well
as for you? How much distance does there have to be between me and the
location of my original words for it to be alright to share things
which, if shared in a closer environment, would violate
your privacy and cause you flagrant and unnecessary inconvenience?
If I were the solo astronaut on the first space flight to Mars, and if
upon landing on its surface I found, to all of our amazement, life on
Mars in a form evolved to the point where our species could
communicate, and if they asked me about you, hundreds and hundreds of
thousands and thousands of miles away from you, hundreds and hundreds
of thousands and thousands of miles away from the promise I've made to
protect you with my life, to uphold your
confidentiality,
to mantain your privacy like it's my sacred duty, and especially if
there was no one else around who would know whether or not
I violated my promise to you, even there, even then you could trust me
to keep my promise to you. That's what I'm saying.
I know
who I am
with you. Indeed, I know
who I amthanks to you. When I'm my word with you, that's
who I am.
I'm that, whether or not I'm anywhere on
Planet Earth
near where I made promises, near where you and I created the
conversation in which those promises showed up, or whether or not I'm
anywhere else, on Mars, for instance, by my
Self
speaking with the life on Mars.
Other than my life with
you as language,
there's no other life for me that's worth living. Any life other than
my life with
you as language,
for me isn't worth living.
Life on Mars ie the possibility of life on Mars, is just more life with
you as language.
In fact, life anywhere ie any where other than
here, is just more life with
you as language.
The glue holding it all in place everywhere is my
agreement with you, and by being born I've already made
that agreement. I've already agreed I'm trustworthy.