Rules and Guidelines
Written by the Author of A Practical Girls Guide to the Universe and Why God is Good and Religion is Bad, Sheri Combs Lantz
Summer is over and back to the real world we must go. Since this puts me back in my vehicle several times a day to be chauffeur to my 14 and 11 year old children, I am seeing a pattern. Not just in driving but in life itself. Politics, Religion, etc. it starts with following the Rules and Guidelines.
Now we all know that most Rules should not be broken, but they are regularly. Let’s take for example the lines in the road, especially country roads. This too can apply to driving on any freeway, highway, residential area or a bustling downtown area. The lines are there to keep us from running all over each other. We have stop signs, stop lights, yield signs, caution signs etc.
We operate under the assumption that everyone is going to follow the Rules of the road. Many of the signs are Guidelines. Caution signs leave it up to the particular driver to determine the rate of speed that they are comfortable driving under certain conditions. So you if are in an SUV, navigating these areas will be much simpler because your vehicle is designed to handle the bumps in the road. However, if you are driving a four door sedan for example, you will have to slow down otherwise your risk damaging the underside of you vehicle. These are posted to us as guidelines and ultimately we are left to decide what course to take.
Then we have Rules. Let’s take the yellow line(s) on a 2 lane rural road with no sidewalks and gutters on each side. No sidewalks of course because that would be too difficult. Our children in the rural areas might be able to ride their bikes or walk the mile to school and thereby eliminate many of the behavioral patterns caused by too much energy and might promote following the rules of the classroom because they have expended their childlike energy getting to their classrooms. Here I dream.
Back to Rules, so there are two lanes of traffic and in the middle there are sometimes double yellow lines, sometimes a single solid yellow line with a broken yellow line beside it and sometimes just a broken yellow line. Now most of us know, or at least I hope we know before being put in charge of thousands of pounds of steel and powerful engine, what each of these lines mean.
I am not so sure, however. So you are traveling on one of these roads at a happy 50mph, that is why you live in the country to be free, but you are busy with your phone or some other distraction and you verve into the middle and cross over the double yellow line. The car coming toward you is not distracted and sees you coming. At the last minute you realize that you have broken the Rule and move back over. The person on the other side has had a mini heart attack because you failed to follow the Rules and is now cursing the fact that you exist. In another scenario you are driving again on a two lane road and the line on your side is broken and the one on the other side is solid. What does this mean? Well you have been given a Guideline. If you choose, you can pass the slower moving car in-front of you. This Guideline allows for you to make a choice. Do you feel confident that you can pass the car in front of you while having another car coming from the other direction?
So what is the point you ask. With integrity and self knowledge we know instinctively, that Rules are not to be broken. We have rules to protect those who are too stupid to protect themselves. So if you are distracted, illogical, impractical, or too irresponsible for yourself, the Government or someone else will tell you what you can and cannot do. Because you cannot follow the Rules, my freedom is impinged upon and my free will, provided to me by my Creator and not some man, has been depleted. Your lack of accountability to the Rules causes the Government and others to view us as incapable of self reliance and then we begin to believe and question or own self knowledge and think that we are too stupid to make our own choices. Remember there are too many entities all too ready to make you follow the Rules. Whether or not you want to drink a 64 ounce big gulp, buy and sell, grow your own food, own a firearm, your choice to not follow the Rules affect everyone. So then there must be more Rules.
The Guidelines are left up to the individual and make for a free society. When the ones making the Rules do not follow the Rules and Guidelines established over 200 years ago, because it is now said to be outdated, I have too ask, do you feel any freer today than you did 4 years ago, 20 years ago, 50 years ago? Probably not. We have been provided by Divine Providence the Rules and Guidelines that served many for thousands of years, yet they too are now outdated? I think not. We have Rules and we have Guidelines for a reason. Rules are not to be broken and Guidelines are just that. Guides to help us make our own choices.
Sheri Combs Lantz, Author of A PRACTICAL GIRL'S GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE AND WHY GOD IS GOOD AND RELIGION IS BAD, is queen of questioning the question. Mother of a 3 children ranging in age from 29-11. Part-time Realtor with over 17 years of professional Real Estate Industry experience. Wife, Organic Farmer, self reliant Prepper, avid Equestrian, Friend, Reformed Liberal, a proud American trying to live the jaded American Dream and most importantly a Practical Girl.
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