I ran into a woman at the gas station the other day, she was different. Different in a good, yet strange way. I saw her talking to another patron as she sat on the rock wall that lined the walkway into the convenience area of the station. I did not think much about it. Just another different person in Nevada County sitting around, right?
When I got out she started talking to me and although the conversation was brief it was powerful and has stuck with me since. As I walked down the walk to my car she said, "Don't mind me, I am just putting my make up on in the best place to put make up on." Not sure what to say I muttered, "Sure, looks like the best spot." The woman then said, "Hey, I gotta be real! See it even says it here on my mirror." She then flipped her mirror around so that I could see the colorful art on it that read, "Be Real". OK.
I began pumping my gas. She sat about 5 feet from where I was so I asked her, "How are you today?" She said that she was doing wonderful because the sun was shining and that she was going to go sit on a rock and pretend she was a lizard. She asked me what I was doing, I told her I was going to go up to a friends house and help out with some invitations. She then started to ask some pretty deep details so my answers started to become not so "real". Did it really matter to her who it was for, what kind of function it was, whether or not we were going to be drinking while we are doing this or what time of year the event was at? No. It mattered not. So, why was I not telling her the details?
After pondering the event all day, I realized it was because I did not know this lady, it was my instinct to not be truthful because I was not sure her intention. This then became a lesson on trust (as well as a sign about keeping it real). We are programed not to trust strangers. As a mother, I know how important this is.
As far as humanity goes, this seems a bit backwards. Trust and truth will be what changes this distrusting world, yeah? Definitely something that I have been and will continue to ponder. I think that it has something to do along the lines of we create our own reality. Why do we teach distrust instead of trust and if we taught trust would people still do the things that cause us to distrust? Kinda like fighting fire with fire ;)
Now (Mom and Dad calm down), I will be the first one to say that I am no angel and that the lessons of trust and truth are not new to me. If I told my parents what I was really doing while I was supposed to be at so and so's house, I would have had no fun as a teenager, LOL! But I learned as it all caught up to me at some point and now I know that honesty is always the best policy. Unless of course, you run into a woman who puts her make up on in front of a gas station at 10 am in the morning and tells you they are going to pretend to be a lizard later in the day, then you should probably not indulge the entire truth. While I am sure she was perfectly harmless, you never know!
