trust.. or lack of it...

now, the beard has always been big on trust... its partly the scout Promise that he made when aged eleven, and partly a possibly misplaced optimistic belief inn the general goodness of most people.. even though my wiseness does not extend to believing in altruism.. lets be honest, we may be ale to fool ourselves, but every good act we do is for some sort of personal gain, no matter how ethereal.. but i digress... what got me thinking about trust today of all days was a comment made by an aquaintance on internet relationships.. now, I think most of us, myself included, would have agreed with him.. basically, his point was that, even with the advent of webcams and such like magical parraphernalia, it is impossible to ever be totally sure that the person you're chatting to is who they say they are.. so much so that it led to this exchange...

" I'm chatting to a gorgeous blonde from Surrey at the mo.."
"How can you be sure that she's a gorgeous blonde?"
"Because she says she's a fat bearded trucker called Kevin.."
Which I think illustrates my basic point.. for lets be honest, there are a lot of wierdos out there... and it is very easy to pretend you're someone else... although lets be honest, thats what most of ius do every day anyway.. but more of that later... but that got me to thinking (oh gods.. NO!!!!) thinking logically (Forgive me Mr Spock!!) having a friend you know only through the old world wide interweb thingy is really very little different to having a pen friend.... so why are we so worried about it... why the lack of trust?? Well, the beard can see several possible reaesons.. firstly the speed of communication.. being very near instant, its far easier to be lulled.. and far easier to fail to spot any inconsistencies that in a letter would stand out on rereading... also there is the ease of access that email can give us.. lets be honest, just tap in your own addy, change one character, and send. chances are someone will receive it.. so where pen friends would get together through newspaper ads, school projects, etc, internet friends made through so called networking sites are vetted a little less... probably a lot less... which is not a good thing... but more than anything, I think its our basic mistrust of magic that gets in the way.. some marks on a bit of paper.. well.. we all understand nowadays how they came about.. writing is no longer the magic it once was.. but computers.. the web.. email.. as a slightly wiser man once said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.." and lets be hones, computers are still magical devices, the modern age palantiri if you like... crystal balls (and that could even be a literal description!)... and that makes the whole process magical.. and we've never trusted magic....either that , or we have some strange graphology gene that enabes us subconciously to analyse handwriting and therefore figure out what sort of person wrote to us.... I mean, for several years i wrote regularly to someone in New Zealand... now i never met her.. she could have been anyone.. even a man.. but that never crossed my mind... whereas it is in the forefront of most contacts i have through websites.. which is only sensible. but I shall continue to believe that people are who they say they are, until eveidence shows me otherwise.. as I've said, nearly all of us are just pretences.... so, unil we can all be who we are, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!