“Rules are made to be broken.” Well… not really. Rules are our communal values put to work: If we believe A, then we agree to live and treat each other like B. Generational wisdom and discipline matter, and rule breakers are not generally good for society. And yet…
Sometimes the rules themselves are broken, which is to say, they are no longer (or upon further reflection, never were) serving our values. So we change them. Or set them aside for times when other conflicting values take precedence.
Last week I described how I deliberately (and temporarily – I was back on it today) set aside the 9am rule from Day 1 because life events pushed other values up the ladder.
And yesterday, I abandoned the No Disc Golf rule early – not because I decided to just say F-it and have some fun, but because I spent the previous three weeks learning more about tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis). I know more now than I did then, and came to the studied conclusion that the rule, while a good starting point, was no longer helping me progress. So I revised it.
I also have a photo rule: to share exactly one photo from the morning’s walk, whether there are any “good” ones or not, which has often been difficult for me. Today, I (finally!) had the opposite problem: a surplus of keepers. But I’ll stick to the rule: you only get one today. Because in times of plenty, sometimes you feast, and sometimes you save for later.
