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Trust
When we were infants, we had no choice but to trust: trust that the milk we drank wasn’t poisoned; trust that the hands which held us wouldn’t choke us; trust that a belt wouldn’t be used to get us to quiet down.
When we got older, we started to play with other children, maybe in the family, maybe in the neighborhood, maybe in school.
As human beings, we are social animals. We live, play, learn, and work in groups. In groups, as babies, we are all the same. We eat, poop, laugh, play, and sleep. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
But as we get older, subtle differences begin to emerge. Soon enough, by the time we’re four or five, a group leader has risen. Energy levels, interest levels, verbal skills levels, all of these things conspire to create differences. And by the time we’re five, six, or seven, there are hierarchies in our little groups.
Because we’re social animals, we see in our families the dynamics between fathers and mothers, and we unconsciously ape them. But what about families where there’s just a mom and no father figure? There are still male figures we see, almost always on television, where we start the great, lifelong brainwashing process to turn us into human commodities.
Throughout childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, we experiment with relationships. The broad parameters of relationships are almost always defined by…
