We were just finishing lunch when the phone rang. The recorded voice on the other end informed me that this call was in response to a request that I, or someone in my household, had made for information about a brace for a back, knee or wrist. Not true. Neither my wife Betsy nor I had made such a request. If you’re like us, you, too, have received similar uninvited calls pitching products or services and using deceit to draw your interest.

Deceit has become routine, normal, as common as friendly greetings. We have come to expect it. Our acquired skepticism requires us to adjust our perceptions accordingly, filtering incoming messages for what is true and what isn’t, more importantly, what and whom we can trust.

Children learn to lie at an early age, trying to cover up the disappearance of a furtively stolen cookie or how a lamp got broken. Most of us outgrow this because maturity teaches us how important honesty and trust are. Without trust, any relationship loses its anchor, between merchant or service provider and customer, medical professional and patient, among family members, neighbors, friends, colleagues, between lovers, spouses.

Between questioners and witnesses who lie under oath, having sworn to tell the truth and noting but.

Between president and citizens. Millions living in in our nation and in nations around the world and their leaders have learned that they cannot trust anything that comes from the mouth of our president. This is more than sad. It’s terrifying.