Where has the trust gone?

Remember when things were simple? When people didn't lock their doors, and kids played outside by themselves as long as they could hear mom calling them for dinner? When you paid the neighbor kid to run to the store for you and people trusted each other

Granted some of that was not in MY lifetime but I do remember stories about such things even as recently as my parents lifetimes. Things are so different now. We don't leave anything unlocked for fear or theft or home invasions. Children aren't allowed out of the front yard without supervision for fear they'll get taken or worse. You drive to the corner store before you give some random kid money to go there for you (see above: not allowed to leave front yard anyways). And nobody trusts anybody anymore because when we do put our faith in the greater good of human kind most of us get bitten and torn to pieces.

It's a sad state of affairs really. I used to be the girl that had blind faith in everyone around me. Nobody wants to hurt me, I'm kind to everybody why would anybody want to do something bad to me? Maybe it's happened enough now that I know better. Or maybe I watch too much tv, or the news. Maybe it's that I have a baby and that mother bear instinct has taken root and taken me to a place of 'protect at all costs' even when no protection is necessary. I'm wary of everything and everybody.

This afternoon my son and I were at the food court of our local mall enjoying a snack before we continued our walk. There was a young man there, and to be honest he caught my eye before I even sat down. He seemed to be quite upset and he was sitting alone with his face in his hands. I almost went over to him. That nurturing mother inside me wanted to give him a giant hug and tell him that everything would be okay. The other voice, the mother bear voice, told me to sit and wait first. So we did and within seconds I saw something play out in front of me that I simply couldn't walk away from without doing 'something'.

There were two little old ladies sitting at the table next to this boy. They were just getting up to leave as I was sitting down. He stopped one of them and asked the time and the other lady noticed, as I had, the red face and wet cheeks of this poor young man and asked him if he was okay. He shook his head no and thanked them for the time, rubbing his eyes to emphasize the crying (or maybe just to get the tears out?). They both sat back down and asked him again what was wrong. I couldn't hear all of the conversation but it became evident that this boy had been through the ringer and was now giving them the never ending saga of his life.

At first I thought, "oh good, somebody is going to help him", but when I heard the words 'hungry' and 'no money', I began to worry there was something else going on. He was laying it on pretty thick and all of a sudden that mother bear inside me turned on him. I suddenly wanted to wrap my arms around these sweet little grandmas and escort them away from the big bad wolf. One of the ladies got up and went off to order him something to eat leaving the other poor defenseless woman to stay there by herself. It was smart of her to purchase the food rather than to give him money, and if it had been me that's what I would have done.

Then I heard the words "get home to mom" and saw him show this lady the vast, gaping, empty hole that was his wallet. I couldn't decide what to do and didn't want to have to leave them alone to go find security. The universe was co-operating though and I saw one of the ladies that cleans the trays in the food court by the garbage cans. I stopped her quickly to ask her what she thought we should do. She informed me that she'd seen him there before and pointed out her supervisor, instructing me to talk to him about it. I did just that and he went to go check it out.

I left at that point so I have no idea how it all turned out. I told the supervisor that I was concerned that this boy may in fact actually NEED help but that I was also worried about these ladies. I had images in my head of him asking for a ride somewhere and stealing their purses and car once he got them out of the public eye (and god knows what else). 

It saddens me that I was so quick to jump to the conclusion that he was some kind of monster. He is somebody's son after all. I hope he wasn't and that he does find the help he needs. I'm not sorry for what I did though. I trusted my gut instincts and while I'll never know if they were right or wrong, I may have just saved a couple of old ladies today, and maybe I saved a young man from doing something awful or by bringing more attention to his cause.