The rules in Life
We all have to live by rules in life and we all moan about it sometimes. Even the most rebellious person lives by them (“don’t obey rules”, is one). Most of us break them, and many people seem to have an astonishing ability to do that and still get by in life without upsetting others too much.
The big hitters in this department manage to give back more that they take. For example, I’ve recently read biographies that illustrate this. Steve Jobs and Bob Dylan were both driven, charismatic and obsessive characters who upset a lot of people in single-minded pursuit of their goals. They both seemed to think that rules were made for other people, but not them.
But the rest of us have to live – mostly anyway – by the rules of the game. We are often irked by them and we even mock them. Convention holds us back, stops us being who we really are; we fantasise about ‘breaking out’, freedom, and a life unfettered by the mores and social rules that keep us on the rails of banality.
Now the good news
As there is with most things if you look for it, there’s a lighter side to this. If, like me, you sometimes rail against rules, it helps to remember that without them things would be a shambles. A kickabout might be fun but it soon becomes boring; when you add rules, soccer is born!
It is the rules that make the game. Whether it’s soccer, poker, or life, without rules the game wouldn’t exist.
