Trust?

Dear you,

A poem by Christopher Logue:

Come to the edge.

We might fall.

Come to the edge.

It's too high!

COME TO THE EDGE!

And they came.

And he pushed,

And they flew.

I love the three voices there; we hear the inspiring leader, the doubtful followers, the objective observer/teller of the tale.  The leader's assertiveness convinced them to take the risk and they flew. Happy ending. But if that leader was a shady con-man or con-woman, there would be lots of blood in the valley below the cliff.  It's a matter of trust. Sometimes we trust the wrong people. See the indictments and testimony about Mr. Trump. See what his "leadership" did to those who believed him. He pushed. They fell. All this is going down and yet he took time out of his day this morning to lash out at his fan-spokespeople on Fox and Friends.  From the New York Post:

“Why doesn’t Fox and Friends show all of the Polls where I am beating Biden, by a lot. They just won’t do it!” the former president posted on Truth Social. “Also, they purposely show the absolutely worst pictures of me, especially the big ‘orange’ one with my chin pulled way back.

Well, not that I typically want to defend Fox and Friends, but come on, Donald.  You are BIG and ORANGE and have NO PERCEPTIBLE CHIN. What other image could they use? Poor Fox and Friends, long time defenders of the Donald. They trusted a really bad guy; they trust him still.

It's always a matter of trust.  Zoom in to a Florida story, also featured in the New York Post.  A woman named Nichole Maks shared a home with an elder (a Mr. Cerasoli) who probably trusted her.  She murdered him, then fled to a local fast food joint. (Nothing like homicide to work up an appetite.)  There, she was apprehended by the police and taken into custody.  "After she was read her Miranda rights, Maks told detectives that she never entered Cerasoli’s bedroom and only set foot on the second floor of their shared apartment to “feed her spiders.” When asked about the weapons she had dropped, police said, Maks became “agitated” and demanded a lawyer. Police returned later with a warrant to test the woman’s bloodied body for DNA evidence. Maks then asked for a can of Diet Mountain Dew and police obliged her."  She then doused herself with Dew, attempting to erase the DNA. Well, the attempt failed.  She's legally doomed but at least she's not dead like poor, trusting Cerasoli. Bless his heart. The "I keep spiders as pets" thing should have been a major red flag.  He trusted a really horrible woman.

We have to take risks; we choose who to trust every day in different contexts. We must trust or we'll never "fly".  But these are the days when our senses must be sharp and our choices well-informed. Go to the edge, please. But do your research first.

Love,

Joyce