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When Trust is Broken


You meet an old man with an unearthly sparkle in his eyes on a street in one of Coleridge's poems. He insists on telling you his story.

He was a sailor. A tempest carried his ship away, beyond all human control, to the South Pole. And there the ship lay stuck in the ice with huge icebergs towering all around. No sign of life anywhere. It looked like a hopeless situation.

Then came from somewhere an albatross breathing hope and cheer. The bird became the sailors' friend. It came whenever they called it "for food or play." A unique bond developed between the men and the bird.

That bond was shot to death by a sailor one day. He took his "cross-bow" and sent an arrow straight into the heart of the trust that had developed between the men and the bird. Wanton brutality. So human!

The sailor who committed the perverse act never knew peace after that. Their ship was damned. The sailors perished one by one. Our sailor survived to tell the story of his betrayal to us, to teach us the lesson about the value of trust.

When you break the trust of another being, you are wrecking the bond that unites beings together. It is the gossamer web of relationships that you rend. What is life without relationships?

When you break the trust of a person, you are shooting an arrow through his very soul. You force him to erect protective armours all around. He won't be able to let the river of his love flow.

Have you seen people whose hands tremble as they sign their names? Study them and you'll know the meaning of armoured heart. 

Trust is the bird that comes through the mists of human struggles when your ship is stuck. If you shoot it...

The consequence depends on what kind of a person you are.

Not many possess the sagacity of Coleridge's sailor.

My hands trembled for years as I signed my name because a person had broken my very soul by shooting an arrow through it. The most terrible pain was when the very person who gifted me that shiver asked, "Why can't you put the same signature twice?"

When your soul is fragmented, no two of your signatures will be the same. I didn't tell him that, however. He was sitting on the other side of the table. It was to get there that he had broken my trust.

PS. Written for Indispire Edition 447: What pains most is...

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Comments

  1. magiceyeJuly 25, 2023 at 6:17 PM

    Politicians have honed into a fine art.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yamini MacLeanJuly 25, 2023 at 10:43 PM

    Hari OM
    The pain of trust broken cuts deeper, I think, than just about any other... YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. TomJuly 26, 2023 at 5:15 AM

    ...I remember when our son who is now 51 lied to me, he had to regain my trust.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 26, 2023 at 6:18 AM

      And that, regaining of trust, is a tough job. But between parents and children, it's a different matter. It also depends on the gravity of the act.

      Delete
  4. AnonymousJuly 26, 2023 at 5:36 PM

    What hurts the most is when you give someone a second chance even after they have hurt you very much, only to get betrayed again.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJuly 26, 2023 at 6:13 PM

    An enemy is better than a friend who laughs with us and stabs us from behind. But some people forgive them only to be cheated again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJuly 26, 2023 at 6:56 PM

      Once bitten, we should be twice shy. I was betrayed twice, but not by the same person.

      Delete
  6. Pradeep NairJuly 27, 2023 at 9:16 PM

    Yes, relationships and, by extension, society are built on trust

    ReplyDelete
  7. CareenaAugust 3, 2023 at 12:49 PM

    Being betrayed at least once in life is now more a rite of passage. I'll take that wisdom no matter how painful...

    ReplyDelete

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