Cynicism

I saw another movie the other day where there was one character who believe, maybe naively, in people. They believed in people who were lying about who they were, what they were doing, etc. Everyone saw this character as naive and foolish. They thought he was being foolish, believing people, seeing the best in people. They tried to make him ‘see the world’ as it is.

But what I realized is how refreshing it must be to believe people, to believe beyond doubt that people were telling the truth. And what’s more, is that it’s harder.

It is easy to disbelieve, to be a cynic, to say something can’t work. It is hard to believe in something, someone, to take people for their world, to trust them. By trusting the world, you leave yourself vulnerable (which is basically what happens to him the whole movie, he gets taken advantage of).

And that’s a scary risk, a risk that we must take if we are to trust.

For most of the movie I felt similarly to his family, ‘why is he being so naive’ ‘when will he wake up?’. But then I thought, well isn’t this how it is supposed to be?

Aren’t we all supposed to trust, love openly, leave our hearts open and ready? Isn’t it supposed to be alright that we are vulnerable?

It’s pain, hurt, betrayal that teaches us not to trust.

But I feel that we are supposed to be able to, to be able to be vulnerable, to be able to trust and love.

So what I’m saying, is maybe take a lesson from him.

Trust more, be more vulnerable, open yourself up to people, let them in. It may go wrong, you may get hurt, but it also may go right, and you may increase your faith in humanity.