I continue to be stretched by the book You Are Your Best Thing. The essay by a woman who is a professor in higher education described a time she heard a presentation by survivalists. By definition these people spend all their energy preparing for catastrophe. When it was time for questions someone asked what was the single most important thing to have to survive. Shelter? Water? A tool? 

 

"You need people you can trust."

 

The insight lingered with me all day. Defensiveness exhausts our resources. John Gottman includes it as one of the Four Horseman that doom marriage. Dishonesty disintegrates society in ways that can be overwhelming. 

 

Margaret Mead is reported to have described the first sign of civilization as a healed femur. It testifies that someone was hurt, and another person cared. Alone, no human or animal could heal without help and protection. 

 

I cannot by myself eradicate deceit from marketing, and politics. I cannot shield the people God puts in my path from all harm. I cannot promise that hearts will never be broken.

 

But I can choose every day to be trustworthy to others. I can stand close while they heal.