I break the rules, not everyday, but almost everyday. Just little rules, tiny rules, so they don't really count, right?
I trespass walking my dog through a local farmer's field, but word is the owner doesn't mind as long as we cleanup after our four legged friends while we trespass. Clearly others are breaking the rules too as I pick up soggy clumps of dog poop ignored by rule breaking pet owners.
I speed, yes I like to go zoom zoom. I am careful to watch the needle on the speedometer so it just grazes 20 kilometers above the posted speed limit, then if I get caught I won't have my car impounded. I speed because I'm late, because I like to drive fast and because I'm impatient. I jaywalk. If I choose not to walk the extra distance to the crosswalk I will dash between cars when the timing is right. I am careful to make sure its safe, and there are no police officers watching me while I take a short cut.
Curious, I surveyed family and friends to see how they break the rules. Their answers either came fast and furious or painfully slow, "Hum I can't think of anything right now, no I don't think I ever break the rules." When I relayed my own personal infractions suddenly everyone I asked had a mischievous grin and a twinkle in their eye, and a confession. I discovered someone in my family doesn't always add green waste to the green can, slipping the odd organic matter into the regular garbage. Shocking!
Using the Safeway self serve check-out a friend presses the 'non organic' button to weigh and pay for their 'organic' carrots. Friends are guilty of drinking wine and beer at the beach, despite knowing they were breaking a by-law by having a cold one in public. One family member goes without a bike helmet. The dumbest of rules to break. A friend confided in me that when there are no cars around he will drive through a red light, usually on his early morning trips to work. His wife listening nearby was horrified to hear this confession. Teenagers told me they share festival entrance wrist bands, and sometimes don't confess when they get extra change back from a cashier.
However some rules are made for breaking. Early last month a West Virginia 911 dispatcher saved 17-month-old Aden Walker by breaking the rules. Aden stopped breathing and his grandmother was on the end of the telephone pleading for help as the toddler turned blue. The dispatchers regulations prevented him from giving medical advise over the phone. Protocol required she wait for the paramedics to arrive, a 20-minute drive from her home, but Tim Webb broke the rules and guided Aden's grandmother on how to give CPR saving the boy's life. Tim broke the rules, but he is a hero to the Walker family.
Some people make up their own rules, like my Irish grandmother who had one rule she was adamant I follow. "Always wear clean underwear." Her reasoning, "You never know when you will be hit by a bus, always have fresh panties, that way when they cut your clothes off in the hospital emergency room the first thing they will notice is that your knickers are clean." Daily clean underwear, that's a rule I never break. Thanks Granny.
Civilized healthy societies are structured around rules. They keep us safe, they provide order and protect us from ourselves and others. They allow us to live in harmony. Everyday we choose to walk within the lines, to conform to the laws, but occasionally it feels OK to break the rules as long as no one gets hurt. It's important to ask ourselves what rules we break, why and how we justify them, a healthy exercise in understanding human nature. Mischievous, rebellious, cynical, non conformist or lazy we rule breakers have our justifications, for better or worse.
Next time when I walk past the do not trespass sign I'll smile and give a little wink. I'm breaking the rules but I've got it under control and hey if I see a little pile of poop that doesn't belong to my dog I'll pick it up and remember what goes around comes around.
