Trust – A 5 Letter Word for Infrequent

Trust is a funny thing. We often question those closest to us, but if TMZ says Rege-Jean Page from Bridgerton has a girlfriend, then Rege-Jean Page has a girlfriend.

There are so many people and circumstances we come across on a daily basis that we don’t trust. Now, I’m not referring to trust in relationships, friendships and family from past trauma, but trust in good Samaritans. Kindness is a scary concept.

A pedestrian waves a driver through a crosswalk and they stop anyways. A phone call from an unknown number means bad news (well, mostly scammers). A driver yields to us in the Tim Horton’s drive-thru and we think they expect a free coffee. The doorbell rings and we instantly question the surprise visitor’s intentions.

Growing up, my mom and I canvased on our block and people would share their deepest, darkest secrets and even give us a tour of their home. Today, you’re lucky if anyone answers the door and anyone is me. 

Why don’t we trust that people have good intentions rather than malicious ones? Criminal Minds, that’s why. 

Trust is not a common word for many and today, words on a crossword puzzle were not even words…

In Waist of Time, I couldn’t find a couple belts. Today, I couldn’t find a couple right answers. 

It should be obvious that the reason recreation therapists create and design programs are to benefit the clients and help meet their goals. However, every time I facilitate a program, I also benefit. I receive lifestyle reminders, re-learn games and increase my public speaking skills. 

With Summer vacations, I have been facilitating more programs than usual and have been noticing how much I don’t know about Canadian history, how questionable my long term memory is and how my vocabulary could use some work. Although, I can tell you who Jennifer Lopez was dating in 1999.

I implemented the Giant Crossword Puzzle program where a giant crossword grid is displayed on the wall and the group completes the puzzle together. I have never been one to enjoy a morning crossword, but when I have the answers in my hand, I could do them all day.

The program was going well and we only had a couple clues left when the participants were finally stumped for the first time. This was quite shocking since they didn’t miss a beat when I had difficulty pronouncing some of the clues.

The final two clues were pout and submerge. After multiple guesses, I could see the steam coming out of their ears, so I provided hints (which I’m pretty sure caused more confusion). 

In the end, the answer for pout was suldy and the word for submerge was sand.

Once the puzzle was complete, I found myself staring at the grid for sometime as I had never heard of the word suldy, but that didn’t mean much since I hadn’t heard of majority of the words on the crossword. 

One resident stood up and announced that I had made a mistake. She was confident that the answers were sulky and sank.

I agreed that made more sense and continued to clean up the program. She then repeated her statement, so once again I agreed and explained that I had been following the answer book. 

I declared her smarter than the crossword answer book and probably smarter than a 5th Grader.

For a third time she mentioned it was wrong, so I erased the letters and corrected each word. She then exited the room with satisfaction. 

And I exited the room no longer trusting a book of ‘correct’ answers.