Trust and other five-letter words

We all recall and possibly still use the phrase, “____ is a four-letter word.”

The blank remains blank for a reason. However, there are numerous other four-letter words that can be safely inserted into that blank and the writer suffer no indignation nor release from the writing of this column. Allow me to permit you the joy of going through your own individual list of “safe” four-letter words. When you reach 20, please return to the reading of the column. With the recent popularity of the game Wordle, we have become inundated with five-letter words. Interestingly enough, since I have been solving the daily Wordle I have gone through 100 five-letter words, and “trust” has not yet been one of them.

Inherent in that word is the concept of belief, similar to the “I Believe” billboard on Route 1. As we exchange dialogue and discourse with one another, there is the expectation of truth (another five-letter word) in the utterances of the other party.

With truth and belief comes trust. We need to be able to believe our fellow conversant, and as a result, trust him or her. Trust is the concept which overshadows and permeates the interaction, and produces longevity. The concept carries over into future encounters with an individual, and forms the basis for belief in the spoken or thought word with the vocal and print world at large.

An important part of this trust thing is the security one feels in the company of the speaker, or dare I say the writer. You may recall the phrase, “You can take it to the bank,” when referring to a trustworthy statement. Needless to say, trust must be earned by the individual. It develops over time as we come to feel confident about the words and deeds of the trusted person. What a powerful word and concept is trust. It feels so good to be in the company of a person or a situation where trust is the prevailing presence. Yes, something or someone you can always count on!

So, what about the five letter words which the game Wordle has yielded over the recent months? I solved the various puzzles even though some of these words are a bit vague and rare in usage. Examples include joust, cinch, tryst, cacao, droll, glyph and piney, which in particular has become near and dear to my heart, as it names the road on which the Delaware Botanic Gardens fronts near Dagsboro. Yes, this could be considered a commercial since we did just  open the garden gates for the 2023 season, and I encourage you to visit us often.

Let us return to “trust,” as an entity and a phenomenon and a word. It is the wish and hope of the majority of mankind that we interact in an environment where trust prevails. We just feel safer in such surroundings, and seek other similar places in which to operate.  Hopefully, our first remembrances of the trust factor were with our parents or at least one parent. Hence the importance of that role, and the sadness which prevails when parent trust is lacking. It’s sad because the child is denied one of the most important aspects in the growing and aging process.

Being held as an infant gives the baby a feeling of trust like none other. Such security forms the foundation, basis and example of a trust that shall carry forth as the baby becomes a child, then an adolescent and finally an adult.

Perhaps it is too much to ask or expect that we are able not only to trust, but to be ever in a trustworthy environment. I hope not. It is a difficult thing to trust another person or a situation, especially if one has been disappointed in past encounters.

A trust you may have once had was betrayed somehow by your own personal Judas. May I suggest that you dust yourselves off, removing any insincerity, disdain and distrust, if such exist, and replace those unfortunate stains with the beautiful mantle of trust.  After all, it is not only “In God We Trust,” as we have emblazoned on our currency, but also, we need to be able to trust one another.