Rant on this untrusting world of ours.

One of my biggest pet peeves in life is not being trusted. Because I feel that I am someone who should be trusted. I rarely if ever lie, and when I do accidentally, I worry about it for days, as Tommy can vouch for.

So today, when I was trying to buy some postcards from the gift shop downstairs (I'm in Hawaii, by the way), I got really frustrated when the cashier asked for some ID. I had only grabbed my debit card because I didn't want to worry about bringing my entire wallet down, and besides that, I've run out of cash. I told him that I left my ID upstairs. He said, "You need your ID."

6 postcards for a dollar. I said, can't you give me a break? It's only a dollar.

He looked uncomfortable when he said, you need your ID. I said, politely but firmly, that it was my debit card and it's only a dollar. He looked even more uncomfortable as he handed the postcards back to me.

I hate that the few people in this world who would steal credit cards and use them as their own have to ruin it for the rest of us. I realize that it's only a safety precaution and I could just run upstairs and grab my ID, but that's not my point. My point is, where is the trust?

Do I look like someone who would steal credit cards? A little girl part of an identity theft ring, really? Do I even look like someone who would steal my parent's credit card for the purpose of buying a dollar's worth of postcards? It's a little unlikely, don't you think?

But it's not only with credit cards that I've seen this happen. In my old job with Camp G, we had to check the parents' IDs for pickup every day. Every single day. And some of the kids were there 3 weeks, with the same old parents picking them up every single day. But we were expressly told not to release the kid if--even on the Friday of the 3rd week--that parent forgot their ID in the car.

Again, I realize it's all for safety. I understand requiring it the first few times. But jeez! When I've seen the same mom, I think by the 15th time I'm going to recognize her. Misplaced distrust.

Another example, again at Camp G. Kids don't get to share food, even when one of them has forgotten a lunch. Yeah, I understand the idea behind it. What if the kid eats something they are allergic to and dies, yada yada yada. But I think that, even at age 6, you know what you are allergic to. And you are not going to eat it.

Are they extremely afraid of lawsuits or what? Why can't we trust these kids to know what they can or can't eat? When I was that age, I knew that I had asthma and I had my inhaler and knew exactly how to use it. When I was just a little bit younger, I knew that I was allergic to milk, so I didn't drink it. I wasn't no "lactose intolerant" weenie neither. I could have died from my esophagus swelling up, and I almost did when my parents found out that I was, in fact, allergic.

Public schools don't have nearly as many precautions, and while I realize that things happen, that doesn't mean that we should feel like we can't trust anyone. On the flip side, if it's just about being worried about lawsuits, then I think that is wrong too. You're just covering your ass because you're a coward and you won't take the chance of trust.

It breaks my heart when my parents exhibit the same behavior. Like when my mom brings her bag up to take Communion because she's afraid someone is going to steal her bag in church. Or when my parents make me watch repairmen for the entire time because they might steal something. Or when my mom tells me not even to look at homeless people because they'll mug you as soon as look at you.

Legitimate fears, all, but maybe who I should really be upset at is that less than 1% of the population who causes us to have these fears. Why do you have to ruin it for everyone?

In the meantime, I'm going to continue accepting offers from random men to sit on their shoulders in the moshpit, because, while I might get slapped in the butt a couple of times, I will get one of the best views in the entire arena. (True story.) It might be stupid, and I might very well end up kidnapped or worse, but unless people give me a reason to doubt, I trust them. And I think everyone else should too.