FIRST, DON’T TRUST ANYBODY [R, 8-6-20]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter

FIRST, DON’T TRUST ANYBODY  [R, 8-6-20]

 

Some time back, a guy called Helen and told her he was from Microsoft and they had discovered that her computer was infected and that she needed to pay him some money and give him control of her computer so he could scan the whole thing to get rid of all the viruses. She is a trusting person. She did it. I mean, if you can’t trust Microsoft, who can you trust? Well, people who claim to be Microsoft but aren’t.

 

Then you know what happened. She learned the truth and told them so. They offered to refund her money. All she had to do was give them control…

 

Now, every once in a while, they call to say they have withdrawn $499 from our account, for continuing coverage, but if she’s not willing to pay that, all she has to do is click on… She checks with our bank. No, they’re lying again. You just can’t trust those guys.

 

You know, you ought to be able to trust people. In the olden days, before computers and credit cards and passwords and pins, trust was normal. Mistrust was not as necessary. If someone gave you $5 in change when you were supposed to get $10, you could see that.

 

It used to be that we trusted people until they gave us a reason not to. Now we have to mistrust them until they give us a reason to trust.

 

Some time ago, without realizing it, we reached Malcolm Gladwell’s “tipping point,” but it was in the opposite direction.

 

Why do people do these untrustworthy things? Sometimes it’s just to see what we can get away with. And, of course, to get money from trusting souls.

 

After Christmas break of my first year in college, I told my roommate that I had gotten married secretly during Christmas break. Just to see how he would react. Not in a scientific experiment way, but in an “I’m preparing to be a sophomore” way. And to get back at him for always being weirder than I.

 

I had known Tom only 3 months. If I had known him better, I would have realized that his reaction would be to go around the dorm to collect money to support me and my new bride. We were all poor in our dorm, even by working-class standards, so he didn’t get a lot.

 

I don’t know what we did with the money. I don’t think we gave it to church. [I wasn’t a preacher yet, obviously.] Tom had no idea who had given what, and he didn’t want to go back around trying to return the filthy lucre. I suppose I should have sent it to Joyce. Poor girl. She had no idea we were married. Or maybe it was Phyllis…

 

It turned out okay. All the dorm guys were so embarrassed, that they had given so little to support me and my bride, that they never mentioned it, never asked about her health, so we didn’t have to tell them the story Tom had created, that when she realized what her husband was like, she had gone to a convent. He liked it so much that he told it, anyway.

 

Now I would not do that sort of thing. By having been untrustworthy, I am now worthy of trust. I can show you how to avoid scams. All you have to do is give me control…

 

John Robert McFarland

 

So, the baby had nothing to do with this column, but if nothing else goes right today, at least you got to see a laughing baby.