Rules

Rules are very important in our lives to keep order. Without them, people would be bumping into each other at street corners or fighting about ownership and much more.

Today I was watching a very old movie and could see how far we have come in being able to control others. In this movie, the attorney brought a new born baby, wrapped in a blanket across town to its rightful parents. Isn't that nice? The fact that he didn't have an expensive car seat or carrier for this new born and the fact that he was allowed to put this small child into his car without restraints that are required by present time new parents at the expense of their fragile budget was amazing and stood out in my mind.

I remember coming home in 1960, holding my new baby to my chest all the way home. She wasn't locked into an "ejection seat" and sitting backwards in the back seat but was being held in my arms, like she should be.

I read a lot about how we have become an indifferent people, but as I see it, we have created this with rules.

How about another rule? I am 73 years old and just over 5 feet tall. If I were growing up in today's world with today's laws, my booster seat would have been with me until I was a junior in High School. I was always the shortest person in my class and even today I am shorter than my siblings who are all younger than I am.

My Aunt Edna, who we all called Aunt Shorty was never even 5 feet tall. I towered over her until the day she died. I supposed that she would have been required to have a booster seat all of her life just to keep from being arrested.

My children would stand behind me and point out things that we saw as we road in the car. The "round and rounds" (windmills) or the "Daddy cars" (Volkswagen bugs). My husband told me that his children wore out the carpeting on the floor bump in the back between the driver's side and the passenger's side.

I am a rebel and don't wear seat belts unless I am in some else's car or see a policeman. I don't wear glasses either. I don't get bike licenses nor have my dogs tagged. I don't get pets from SPCA either. I called them once and asked if I could buy an animal without a microchip and they told me that it was required. So I just don't support them. Rules!

But we seem to need more rules?

In the center of Milwaukee, there is an area that is called the Core. It is populated by a very large black population. I don't have a reason to visit that area often but one time when I was there, my mind was thinking about how confining that area was. One can not drive more than a block before they have to stop for either a light or a stop sign. Very orderly and controlling. Have you ever held a young child on your lap against their wishes? What kind of action or reactions have you witnessed? That is how I felt while there and perhaps that is how the people who live there feel; controlled and confined? Perhaps that is why we witness the actions and reactions that we do?

Rules are great but how many do we really need?

There was a rule that seemed to be enough a long time ago but doesn't seem to work in present time. DO ONTO OTHERS, WHAT YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO ONTO YOU.

Why doesn't that work anymore? Because we are used to having our control come from outside of ourselves. We are told to "take responsibility" but we are not allowed to do that. Everyone wants someone else to tell them what they should do. We basically have been trained to give up control of our lives from early childhood on.

We expect the people who "represent" us to make decisions that we can live with. Why are we surprised when they create rules that we don't like? These people start out wanting to be of service to us but as they feel the "power", they cave in and know that they and they alone will make the rules that they think are best.

Every time someone gets hurt, a new rule goes in. Is it against the rules somewhere to get hurt? Are we taught from childhood on that getting hurt is not possible or a bad thing? Is this where depression sets in because we got hurt?

There are many hurts in life, from emotional hurts to physical hurts. So as the government has rules out physical hurts, via all their rules; we then take on emotional hurts.

Hurting is a way to get attention. Perhaps we have gone full circle and the baby that is stuck or small child that is stuck in the back seat away from the parents somehow has to find a way to get close, to find the love that they need and want to become a healthy human. The rules won't allow closeness.

I told you that I disagree with a lot of present-time rules. It is my belief that in the near future, some of these rules will not apply. At the present time I am not allowed to say why but it will happen and how will people act who have always been controlled? Will they be able to think for themselves? I truly hope so as the future depends on this.

Teach your children how to think and not how to study.