What is the ‘F’ word that all of us use without thinking? It is one, if not, the most important word in our lives. The word is F-A-I-T-H. Webster’s dictionary defines “faith” as: “(1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust”. Other definitions are: “allegiance to duty or a person”; “ fidelity to one’s promises”; “belief and trust in and loyalty to God”; and my favourite – “something that is believed especially with strong conviction and without question.”

Then there is blind faith. “When I plug my electric kettle into the wall receptacle electricity will heat the water inside the kettle.” “When I switch the light switch the bulb will light up.” I can’t see electricity but I know it is there. I have blind faith it will work.

If we have no faith we have no life. Faith is not confined to God or religion, although nearly all the articles I visited online were about religious beliefs – Christian, Islam, etc. This is because all religious groups lay down certain “articles of faith” as their basic principles demanding an implicit faith therein.

Here in the Cayman Islands people are saying: “I have no faith in the Government”; “I have no faith in McKeeva Bush as our premier”; “I have no faith in the opposition party and its leader Alden McLaughlin.”

“I have no faith in the Governor of the Cayman Islands”; ‘I have no faith in the RCIPS (police)”; “I have no faith in the judiciary”.

There is always a reason for this. We might vote for something or someone because we had faith something would work, or what we thought the person stood for, and then it doesn’t work or happen quickly enough (or at all).

Then, as happened to me recently, someone loses faith in you. They perceive in their mind you are going to do something that they believe is detrimental. Even though they are hopelessly wrong and it never entered your mind. You, however, by some previous actions of yours have made that person lose faith in you. How often have you heard the idiom, “O Ye of Little Faith”?

When we go to bed at night we have faith we will wake up in the morning. Do you have faith that our country will get out of the serious problems that we have at this moment?

I have faith we will. I have faith that if we all pull together in unity we will do it more quickly. I have faith all those protesting the Dart proposal to close the West Bay Road will realise the dire situation we are in. I have faith all those 300 people will relook at the benefits the Island will be getting by exchanging just half a mile of road and re-routing the traffic to the Esterly Tibbetts Highway. (Dart is already extending the highway to West Bay’s Batabano, and promising to improve the Public Beach along with a range of other things.) Look at the traffic that flies past the Public Beach and children playing ball in the car park. A terrible accident waiting to happen when they run out onto the West Bay Road, to retrieve their ball that has gone astray. Don’t say it doesn’t happen. I have seen it with my own eyes and more than once. Isn’t it going to be safer with no vehicles hurtling past a public beach?

I have faith in compromise and level headed thinking. I have faith we will spend less time marching and protesting and more on doing something constructive. We have to eat folks. We have to have employment. We have to have tourists. We have to have attractions.

Above all else – we have to use that ‘f’ word – FAITH.