On barns with binoculars...

Hello all,

I am currently writing a piece about trust on the internet, when I recalled a story from my hometown. I think it gets at the point that in order for someone to trust us, we have to trust them as well.

Here ya go:

I grew up in near a small town where everyone knew everyone else. We didn't lock our car doors. Many times I left my wallet or my leather jacket in plain view on the front seat, because I knew it would be there when I returned. We never worried about locking the doors to our house either, even if we were going to be on vacation for two weeks.

If we were short on cash but wanted a great meal--no problem. The owners of the small cafe in town would let us sign our bill, and we could pay it whenever we got around to it. Stores as a matter of habit extended credit to the locals, without doing a credit check.

The summer was my favorite time as a kid. Not having to attend school meant staying up later. We would expend enourmous amounts of energy running around outside until well after the sun slipped beneath the horizon. We were never afraid of strangers lurking in the shadows, because there weren't any. Our only fears were irrational--we thought bats might get stuck in our hair!

I love returning to my hometown, because in many respects it is unchanged. The community still values trust--those who are not only trustworthy but trust others feel right at home in the town.

Let me give you an example: some years back a bunch of folks from Kentucky decided a small town would be a great place to run a drug operation. They bought a farm and began growing marijuana hidden in fields of corn. They probably would have gotten away with this for some time, except for one thing--they didn't understand this town's dynamics. Specifically, they didn't understand the "trust factor."

These marijuana farmers set up barricades at the end of their driveway, and had pitbulls patroling their land. They kept to themselves, and became defensive when the locals asked them polite questions regarding what brought them to the area. They wouldn't even allow their new neighbors to come over and introduce themselves!

As you can imagine, not extending trust to others in turn lead to them being viewed as untrustworthy. It wasn't long before farmers were standing on their barns with binoculars, trying to get a glimpse of what those new "Kentucky folks" (since no one really knew their names, we had to call them something) were up to. A few weeks later, the $40 million drug bust in our small town hit the national headlines.
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Since I have already written quite a bit, I won't go in and analyze all the factors in this situation...but I think you know what I am talking about!

Becky




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