I've been pondering the nature of trust for a few days. Last week Dr. Tam (national Medical Officer of Health) cited Dr. Rishi Manchanda during her daily COVID update -- "Public health moves at the speed of trust." Wow! That made so much sense. As a public health professional for many years, I have first hand experience in the slowness of behaviour change. Often this requires a change in beliefs or values, which take a very long time. Think of changes in smoking in public, wearing seat belts, using helmets for cycling, hockey and baseball. Each of these took one to two decades to alter public actions. We are now trying to alter social norms and mores to accept wearing masks, keeping 6 feet apart, using hand sanitizer, and washing hands often. The urgency of such behaviours cannot wait 20 years to develop a major change, but trust does need to happen.
Whether we are building trust in self or others, this generally needs removal of armour or brick walls built around our beliefs and values. This reminded me of another quotation by Marc Carney (former governor of the Bank of Canada) as cited in former Governor-General David Johnston's book -- "Trust arrives on foot and leaves in a Ferrari." I love this statement. It takes much time and effort to build trust, but can take mere seconds to destroy trust. At present, when the world is in a major state of flux, the confusion and fear get in the way of developing trust. It is not an impossible task, but it takes time and patience by all sides.
The song shared today came to mind when thinking of the second quote. It is a fun song. <smile>. Stay safe. Enjoy!
MGB-GT -- Peter Tork
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