A Matter of Trust

Tags

betrayal, nothing will come of nothing, sestina, Trust

Now I have got the hang of the sestina, I can’t stop!

 

 

Marriage was supposed to be based on trust.

When challenged, he had said it was nothing.

She hadn’t envisaged that he would cheat.

How she wished she hadn’t found that letter,

or the lipstick marks that were so suspect.

She felt that she was going up the wall.

 

And between them, there seemed to be a wall.

At the beginning, she had put her trust

in God, in him- little did she suspect

that she was a mere cipher; a nothing

to him.  Though compliant to the letter,

she’d never please one who would always cheat.

 

Was it a triviality to cheat;

a childish mis-demeanour, or a wall

of lies, crushing her heart?  And the letter,

addressed to one who had betrayed her trust:

it was an enormity; not nothing-

to have one’s self-esteem shattered; to suspect

 

that he did not view himself as suspect;

that he would blithely carry on, to cheat,

to tell his mistress his wife meant nothing

and, if she cried, to callously stonewall

her needs while she’d remain patient; would trust

that he would start proceedings by letter.

 

She came home from work.  There was the letter.

She knew it would come, but didn’t suspect

its impact.  The betrayal of her trust

overwhelmed her.  She had married a cheat:

the writing was well and truly on the wall.

So, she had pledged her troth for nothing.

 

Who was it said nothing would come of nothing?

Whoever had been right, to the letter.

And so now she was up against the wall.

Though she’d play fair, she could only suspect

he’d lie, mis-represent and try to cheat.

Oh, what a fool she’d been to ever trust!

 

But trust nothing again?  She was no cheat.

I suspect she’ll construct no wall of shame:

beyond the letter of the law lives trust.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Principles Define Us

Tags

Ai Weiwei, Changi, David Battie, deferred gratification, Dim sum, earthen vessels, Garden of Eden, Heathrow, Horatius Bonar, Humpty Dumpty, Jia Xiang, KrisFlyer, NGV Melbourne, Qing vase, Singapore Airlines, The Antiques Roadshow, The Fitzwilliam, Trust, UOB Bank, Warhol

(Walters Collection, Baltimore)

I wouldn’t trust him with a barge pole, said Brassie, firmly.

How does she create these mixed metaphors?  What would

she expect someone to do with a barge pole?  Run off with it and

sell it on E-bay?

I kept thinking about the short advert for UOB Private Bank which

I saw on KrisFlyer, on the screen on the back of the seat in front of

me, during my flight on Singapore Airlines, from Changi to Heathrow.

The advert was a lot more interesting than the films on offer.

Trust.  “Our Principles Define Us.”

A sweet little boy- Jia Xiang- is shown a large blue and white vase

by his father, who tells him that it is priceless and irreplaceable.  The

parent places it on his display shelves and asks his son not to touch it.

The boy nods and promises.

Later Jia Xiang is bored as it is raining and he goes to the shelf and takes

the vase down, in order to look at it.

A servant calls him for Dim Sum and the boy hurriedly replaces it on the

shelf, but not in the exact same position.

(Matt@PEK Flickr)

His father later questions him as to whether he touched the vase.  Truthfully,

the boy confesses and his father raises the vase and smashes it to the floor.

He then tells his son that trust is of the utmost importance.  They hug.

Hmmm, as a non-committal Anglican vicar friend of mine might comment.

(Image by Hafenbar)

The underlying metaphor reminded me of the video at the NGV, Melbourne.

The Ai Weiwei/ Warhol exhibition is brilliant and featured footage of the

Chinese artist raising an ancient vase above his head and smashing it to

the ground. I think we are meant to question its cultural, aesthetic and

historical value.  All I could think was:  What a shame!  I hope it was a fake.

It’s like David Battie on The Antiques Roadshow, assessing some priceless

piece of porcelain.  I keep wanting to shout out at the screen:  Be careful!

You are making me nervous!

I remember some visitor stumbled down the stairs at The Fitzwilliam Museum

in Cambridge and knocked over three Qing vases on a sill in the stairwell.

They had a combined value of £500,000.

He should have tied his shoelaces.

Restorers did manage to put all the shards together again- unlike Humpty

Dumpty.

But should the museum have trusted the visitors?  Well, 9 million people

had passed them before and nothing untoward had occurred.

When The Husband broke both of my prize lustre vases in one week, I had to

ask myself where I placed my value.  The Bible says we have our treasure in

earthen vessels, so I suppose the vessels are only the receptacles.  Where

your treasure is, there will your heart be.

I was still annoyed!

Sometimes I remember the patient child in the psychology experiment on

deferred gratification.  When told not to touch the sweets and there would be

a greater reward after a little time, some kids just could not wait.  Others

could and reaped the benefits of even more confectionery.

Sometimes I wish that I was able to trust God and leave things alone and not

touch them.

But then, it is the same old problems as our forefathers had in The Garden of

Eden:  curiosity, impatience and lack of trust.

Our principles define us, as the UOB advert says.

Christianity often recommends having a firm grasp.  Horatius Bonar’s hymn

sprang into my mind:

Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face.

Here would I touch and handle things unseen.

Here grasp with firmer hand eternal grace…

Oh, for a more tactful and careful approach to dealing with sensitive matters!