Letter: Trust Me, I’m Skeptical

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Letters beat emails for trustworthiness. A gullible skeptic reflects on navigating trust in a 50-year marriage, and the energy cost of distrust.

Click here to view the printable newsletter with images. More readable than a transcript, which can also be found below.

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Production Team

1. Kayla Nelson: Web and Social Media Coach, Dissemination, Help Desk 
2. Leon van Leeuwen: editing and site management
3. Oscar van Leeuwen: video editing
4. Julia Higgins: Digital marketing therapy
5. Steve Heatherington: Help Desk and podcast production counseling
6. Joey van Leeuwen, Drummer, Composer, and Arranger, provided the music for the intro, outro, proem, and reflection

Podcast episode on YouTube

Episode

Dear Listener and Reader,

I thought I’d start writing you letters. I miss letters. I send cards thanking my guests for their participation. People universally appreciate getting something via snail mail. But cards aren’t letters. They’re preformatted notes, where I just change the image and the name.

For giggles, I looked back at my very first blog post, July 31, 2012. It was a paragraph, a letter of sorts, short and simple, Improv and Best Health.

It’s taking me longer to produce each episode. So, no more frequently than once a month. So, why not a letter, short and sweet, from time to time?

Let’s start with trust. A letter feels more trustworthy than an email or a tweet. It’s signed; a person who writes a letter really wants to communicate and thinks about what they’re saying. So, perhaps, not a troll, more trustworthy. I always open letters.

My immediate, momentary, default reaction to almost anything is trust. My kids say I’m gullible. My next instant reaction is skepticism. I think about what’s not true about whatever. ‘AI is the solution to everything.’ What do you mean, everything? What is AI anyway? Like that.

I’ve been married for 50 years because at our core, my wife and I trust each other. We disagree, we misunderstand, we anger, I sulk. Yet we trust. On the other hand, I make stuff up. I misremember, create a story, and if it serves my purposes, stick with it or modify it as needed. My wife and grandkids are my fact-checkers. Still, we trust each other.

In my personal life, trust isn’t an on-or-off switch, all or nothing. Well, not usually. It’s a matter of degree; it’s about something. I trust that I can count on you to be there for me, unless you can’t. I trust that you’ll return my call, unless you’re hurt, don’t feel like it, or missed it.

Distrust sucks energy; be more careful with my words, self-censor, close my heart and mind.

I don’t expect to trust everybody or everything. When I do trust, it’s priceless.

Thanks for listening, I’ll be back.

Related episodes from Health Hats

Improv and Best Health

Trust is Complicated: Person-First Safe Living in a Pandemic Part 3

Trust: Willing to be Vulnerable. Worth the Investment.

Artificial Intelligence in Podcast Production

Health Hats, the Podcast, utilizes AI tools for production tasks such as editing, transcription, and content suggestions. While AI assists with various aspects, including image creation, most AI suggestions are modified. All creative decisions remain my own, with AI sources referenced as usual. Questions are welcome.

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Disclaimer

The views and opinions presented in this podcast and publication are solely my responsibility and do not necessarily represent the views of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute®  (PCORI®), its Board of Governors, or Methodology Committee. Danny van Leeuwen (Health Hats)