The Unexpected Should be Expected

“Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.” -William Wordsworth

Betrayal can come in many forms. It can surprise you unexpectedly when it arrives or it may creep up on you over time and space. Getting older can seem like a betrayal of sorts, as our body and mind seem to decline in its abilities and functions. Our brains do not seem to be cognitively wired to foresee this coming as time marches on. Sometimes our brains do not see the sudden betrayals, the quickening of a dispute, or the rapid reversal of an opinion or a flat out lie that throws you under the bus.

Nature however, as Wordsworth so eloquently states, seems to gather up a consistent and perfect track record of non-betrayal. It moves along laws that can be deciphered and understood, especially when science is applied. You may argue that an earthquake or a volcanic eruption may be nature betraying man, but is it not more nature just being nature. How can we look at it as a betrayal in the sense that humans define betrayal?

When I ponder this, I have new found respect for the existence of the natural world and an understanding of my place in it. It is often easier to exist against a human-less backdrop of earth, trees and sky than in a group of homo-sapiens. Anything that may happen to me while i am in nature should be unexpected yet perfectly reasonable if it occurs. Swimming in the ocean? Get eaten by a Great White Shark. Living in San Francisco? That big earthquake is coming. Build your house in a flood plain? The rains will someday be a fallin’.

So I, as Wordsworth, will continue to love the fact that nature will not betray me. And I will try my best to be more like nature with those around me, so they will not experience the unexpected from me. And hope that they will be more nature-like in return.

To Trust

“Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.” -- Arthur Miller

I was contemplating betrayal the other day. It seems to be a consistent presence in our lives. It carries about no discernable pattern to its form. People betray other people, regardless of whether or not they love them. Friends betray friends for all sorts of reasons. Our government betrays our trust for many reasons. We betray our instincts and march headlong into disastrous situations, situations that cost momentous amounts of money and loss of human life and tragic suffering.

What is truly lost through betrayals is trust. Who, what, why are all questionable factors now in putting that one foot in front of the next.

Maybe that is one of the reasons that so many people get such gratifying satisfaction from their pets. They can trust them without the possibility of betrayal. Though even after 13 years I still don’t trust the cat. I still often start blindly down the basement stairs only to almost step on it--lazily stretched out on the steps-- and almost take a possible life-threatening tumble. I believe she has been plotting my demise for a long time. The cat is eerily colored to blend in with the carpet. I am sure my wife didn’t consider that when she picked out the pattern. But I always trusted my dogs.

So I ask myself to keep taking the risk of continuing seeking trust.

It is too energy draining to look behind every act, word and supposition to look for the possible betrayal that may or may not lurk there about.