Broken Promises

I received a book this morning. It was the result of a book chain started on Facebook. A wonderful idea. It was based on just one factor, a promise. A promise to send one book to someone you don’t know, but whose address has been passed onto you. I kept thinking about all the people who told they would like to be a part of this chain. Did they all send a book? Did they keep up their promise? I also thought of all the promises made last year. Some that others made to me and some that I made to myself and others. How many were honoured? There are a few promises that the maker didn’t even remember making!

I was disappointed, with others for not keeping up theirs and with myself for not being able to keep mine. It made me think of the reasons the promises were made in the first place. A promise is an assurance of something. It is self explanatory. Sometimes there are conditions, and sometimes there aren’t. Some promises are made and kept. I’m not here to discus those. There are some promises that carry the weight of the world on its shoulders, that when broken, lead to conditions that end up in poems, love stories, epics and movie scripts. These promises are what keep trust intact. When promises are broken, trust ceases to exist. Chaos ensues.

A promise is complex. It isn’t just lip service. You need dedication, determination and commitment to keep up a promise. Unfulfilled promises are just lies. When someone doesn’t keep up their promise, it casts shadows on their accountability and honesty. Why did you make that promise? Was it just because it was convenient for you? Was it the heat of the moment? Was it because you needed the promise long enough to get what you wanted? Why?

Broken promises, at least the important ones, end up in tears and heartbreak. It is painful to think that someone’s words you trusted so much no longer mean anything. Broken promises that are acknowledged still carry some weight as opposed to the ones that are dismissed as something trivial or insignificant. Every relationship, whether it is between friends, lovers, parents and children, business associates, have an underlying trustworthiness. Not everything can be written on paper or appealed in court. Wouldn’t it be sad to wake up one fine day to realise that all the trustworthiness is null and void and means zilch?