Trust

K1 once asked me if I trusted her and I said it depends on what. Perhaps it was not the best answer but I remembered reading this article in the New York Times Magazine by Lisa Belkin, Knowing Noreen. This passage struck me as appropriate:

James Joyce, whose spirit is everywhere in Dublin, once said, "In the particular is contained the universal." This is about child care only in its particulars. It is not a tale of evil nannies lurking around every corner, or a declaration that children are not safe with anyone other than their mothers. More universally, it is about trust, and the harsh reality that as well as you ever know anyone, you can know only what he or she allows you to see.

We know this, and yet we trust. We trust strangers not to poison our food in their restaurants, not to drive drunk when we board their buses. We trust loved ones, even though each year brings new stories of husbands leading double lives, wives whose hidden demons cause them to kill. We hire office workers after a few hours of interviews, at best, and trust them not to steal or destroy all that we have built. We go to a doctor based only on the fact that our neighbors seems to like him. We hand employers out Social Security numbers, and valets our car keys, and bank tellers our balances, and nannies our children.