Sacramento Public Library had an All-Staff-Training-Day yesterday. During lunch a Vendor Exhibition occupied the balcony. Health Net was giving away cards with "mood" strips. Blue = calm. Green = normal. Red = tense. Black = stressed. I carried one for the rest of the day pinching the strip to see if I every reached "stressed.
One of the things Rivkah Sass said, during the keynote address was the expectation of TIRE. Trust. Integrity. Respect. Excellence.
I've been thinking about trust, knowing I have little or none in much of what has happened in the Library over the last few years. I think most do not understand how trust happens but do know when trust has been violated.
Trust is not nebulous. Trust is an emotional response to a promise or expectation. Trust is not an emotion. If someone promises something and fulfills that promise then a level of trust is established and everyone is happy. If the promise is not met then there is distrust. Broken promises illicit the emotions of anger and fear. While most people don't actually like feeling anger or fear we don't react violently to frustration or discouragement. By the way, frustration is anger on a smaller scale just like discouragement is fear on a smaller scale. The cumulative affect of someone not fulfilling their promises is the belief they will never do so. Since we can't live in constant fear or anger we become desensitized to the person. We will not believe they will ever fulfill a promise no matter the circumstances. Once trust is broken it may never be fixed. You cannot force anyone to trust. another.
I took that little card and held it over a burner for a minute. It stayed blue even though the card almost caught fire. I can't trust it.
Gerald F. Ward
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