Days ago, when a dear friend called on the phone, her dull drone sounded as if she was drowning in dreary doldrums. Slowly she began, “Last year, I plunged into a plum business project, of peddling pretty tapestries, for which I pooled in services of a purportedly smart woman, who I presumed had phenomenal potential. Initially, she made a string of promises saying, she’d ever shield me like a strong armour, and if situation demands, even stake her life to see my business attain success."
“By her promises, she instilled in me an ineffable sense of hope, assurance and security. Believing her to be a bonafide friend, I began investing time in building bonds with her. Slowly, when she saw something going awry with my business, which started suffering serious setbacks, slyly she slipped away from the scene, leaving me in lurch. Surprisingly, she didn’t seem to have even scintilla of guilt, reneging on promises she had made. Especially after playing with my life, feelings and emotions."
Incidentally, often we come across many, who keep making myriad such mindless promises. Like, politicos promising the public of latter’s welfare. Guys or gals promising their lovers of eternal loyalty. Employers promising employees of exquisite perks. Debtors promising creditors of returning back latter’s money on time... While some promises are impulsively made, some are innocuous. Again, while some promises are flippantly made, some are done with firm resolve, too, of fulfilling them whatsoever.
Well, whatever be it, when we try retracting on a promise, people’s confidence in us starts corroding, besides our credibility crumbling down. Intertwined with our promises are also the trust/belief of someone in us. So, once this ‘trust’, on which relations thrive, gets terribly annihilated, people’s support, too, would start fraying. Naturally, when we are mired in morass of menacing situations, there’d be none to proffer us succour.
Interestingly, in our younger days, when we welshed on our promises, and got whacked for that, we’d jocularly say, “After all, promises are made to be broken”! Well, now I realise, what gets ‘broken’ aren’t the promises, but the ‘human relations’!