The saying “To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved”, attributed to Scottish author George MacDonald (1824-1905), lends meaning to relationships bound by love and trust triggering the question “How can one be loved if one is not trusted first?” The feature of trust, as an enduring bond between two persons, friends or mates, is considered as the glue in relationships. Taking advantage of somebody’s trust can lead to distrust. There will not be any problem trusting somebody unless that problem is anticipated without any doubt. Once broken, it will be hard to regain that trust back, if at all. The feeling of being trusted results in greater delight that endures than being loved. As the Bard wrote about mercy that it blesses both the giver and the receiver, trust that cements relationship between two persons, one seeking help from the other, too blesses both. Authors, writing in a multitude of languages, poets in particular, have poured their choicest expressions on love on a scale that trust seems to have got sidelined, although trust provides the foundation for lasting love. The all-too-betrayal of trust by the land’s elected representatives of people has placed trust as a suspect virtue, even as less said the better of love.
Trust that is not shaken in different circumstances can also beget love that further cements the bond in relationships. The land’s ancient scripts present the value of both trust and love in convincing perspective. Relationships driven by desire for money, compounded by hard-to-satisfy greed seem to be conspicuously proving the undoing of present-day society, barring exceptions.
