Trust - the foundation of a relationship

Trust.

Trust is that elusive feeling that develops when you know someone well enough to be able to predict what they will do or say in a given situation. If you take a good look at that definition, you will see that it doesn't necessarily have to be a positive thing. I can know a co-worker well enough to know he will not do something he should do. I can "trust" him to be that way. I can know that my mailman will lose some of my mail and/or deliver it to my neighbor half the time; I can "trust" him to do that. People can be trusted to be either reliable or unreliable; honest or dishonest; faithful or not faithful.

What most people think of as trust is when you know a person well enough to know they can: Keep a secret Remain faithful Be honest with you or, any of a number of positive traits. And, yes, these are the ones we truly desire. Are these as important as we say they are? I see two different worlds concerning this:

First, I do see the world in which people want to love each other, care for each other, and spend the rest of their lives together being faithful, honest, and strong. The problem is that I see a lot of these same people choosing partners who are none of those and the person usually knows this and picks them anyway!

Why? Why do people do this? I think that answer is something that is going to have to come from all of you. I have my suspicions and thoughts, but I would rather see how you all react to the above. Tell us:

1) Do you agree that we say one thing and then, so often, choose the opposite?

2) Do you wonder why we do that? What are your thoughts?

3) If you do agree, how do you think we can change ourselves so that we do head more toward trust?

I look forward to your comments, Scott