Living in the City

Thoughts to improve my trusting quotient. "Once trust has been betrayed, most people will be less trusting the next time. The degree of mistrust that is engendered varies between individuals and with the sensitivity of a particular betrayal." "However, over a period of time, your trust can be rebuilt with repeated positive experiences. For example, if your boyfriend is unfaithful, you won't initially trust the next man you date. But, when a man consistently demonstrates his reliability, despite your more critical evaluation of his actions, he might earn your trust. These common but painful human experiences contribute to your growth and development." "Trust is at the core of all meaningful relationships. Without trust there can be no giving, no bonding, no risk-taking. To trust a partner again, betrayal must be acknowledged. The wrongdoer must admit that he or she has inflicted a deep hurt, and the victim must look at what he or she could have done to make ...

"You can learn to trust someone perfectly--but that's risky. Even highly trustworthy people can always change. You can most probably, but not certainly, trust people if they have been regularly honest up to now. That is, if they are not too emotionally disturbed and if they subscribe to usual moral rules. Even when you cannot trust some people, you can teach yourself to feel only healthily sorry and disappointed about their behavior but not unhealthily enraged and self-pityingly about them as persons. Trust yourself to stop damning people as a whole, no matter how badly they now behave. Then you may--yes, may--help them to become more trustworthy." After an affair, or an equally disturbing revelation, most of us don't want the truth. We ask for reassurances from the very person who was dishonest with us. We demand details that are often torturous. We may "police" them, looking for signs of straightforwardness. The way back to trust is counter...

In battling evil, excess is good; for he who is moderate in announcing the truth is presenting half-truth. He conceals the other half out of fear of the people's wrath. Kahlil Gibran, 'Narcotics and Dissecting Knives,' Thoughts and Meditations, 1960 Lebanese artist & poet in US (1883 - 1931)

"Questionable Financial Opportunity' "Distributors can buy products 'wholesale', sell, the 'retail', and recruit other distributors to do the same. When enough distributors have been enrolled, the recruiter is eligible to collect a percentage of their sales, Companies suggest that this process provides a great money making opportunity. However, it is likely that people who don't join during the first few months of operation to become one of the early distributors in their community can build enough of a sales pyramid to do well. And many who stock up on products to meet sales goals get stuck with unsold products that cost thousands of $. This strategy referred to as 'front end loading' is promoted with claims that it will push the new distributor to higher bonus and/or leadership levels quickly."

Written by Dr Stephen Barrett:http://www.quackwatch.org Don't be surprised if a friend or acquaintance tries to sell you vitamins, herbs, homeopathic remedies, weight-loss powders, or other health related products. Millions of Americans have signed up as distributors for multilevel companies that market such products, from person to person. Often they have tried the products, concluded that they work, and become suppliers to support their habit. Multilevel marketing also called network marketing is a form of direct sales in which independent distributors sell products, usually in their customer's home or by telephone. In theory, distributors can make money not only from their own sales but also from those of the people they recruit. Becoming an MLM distributor is simple and requires no real knowledge of health or nutrition. Many people do so initially in order to buy their own products at a discount. For a small sum of money - usually between $35 and $100 -- these companies se...

"During the past few years, many physicians have began selling health-related multi-level products to patients in their offices." Doctors are known to have been recruited with promises that the extra income will replace income lost to managed care." Sad but true.

The games are turning out to be the same. When someone commits not only deliberate but offensive actions, it seems that, that someone is trying to intimidate the other person. How about wiping the slate clean and start over in another direction. But this needs rationality and courage. Difficult but not impossible! Cheers!