More, on Rules That Just Don't Apply to Me!

My brain takes these little side trips often. This whole rule thing started yesterday when my wife said that we had to check into our room in Fort Bragg by 4 pm.

My wife and I are taking a much needed getaway to Fort Bragg. I had decided that we would pack our bags the night before, and maybe eat breakfast on the road somewhere, or whatever we felt like. Janis likes to do photography, and she has very little time for it. So, when we can get away, I like to let her take her time. She has to meet deadlines all the time, and it is just nice to just get away. I enjoy watching her get lost in looking for the right angle, the right light, and just being lost in the fact that she can take as much time as she likes, and the time is finally hers to enjoy, without any deadlines.

Our room is paid for, and the motel sent us a letter of confirmation that the room was paid for and it would be waiting for us. Then the thousand pound weight was put on my shoulders. “You must check-in before 4:00 PM.”

Here we are, taking a couple of days to get away from deadlines and worry, so what does the motel do to help take away our worries? They give us a dumb-assed deadline rule, which most people don’t even think about, but with me if you tell me I have to do something, I have to worry about it. First I worry about the consequences. “Is it a life or death rule?” If the answer is “No” I move to the next question; “Is it a rule that I should follow?“ If the answer is “No”, I move to; “Why would there be such a rule anyway?” Then I move into; “This rule really shouldn’t apply to me!”

I’ve discovered that most of the rules in the world, really shouldn’t apply to me. So, why do people spend so much time making up rules. When I was a little kid they told me that I “had to go to church, or I would go to hell.” I always thought that my way around that rule would be, to be a really nice person, and maybe I wouldn’t have to go to Hell. So that rule didn’t apply to me.

Then I went to school and everybody told me that I would get along great in school, as long as I followed the rules. Some of the rules were like in spelling; “It is always ‘I’ before ‘E’ unless… then there are so many corollaries that not even an English Professor can keep track of them all. And, when it really comes down to the bottom line, it’s really not a very good rule. And, It really shouldn’t apply to me.

When I was in high school my goal was to join the Air-Force and learn to fly at the Governments expense. A teacher at school pointed out that I wasn’t following one of the school rules, which I pointed out to the teacher, that it was a really dumb rule, and it really didn’t apply to me. While sitting in the school councilors office he told me that when I joined the Air-Force that I would have to follow rules even dumber than that! Well… that ended my military career. I don’t like following rules that just plain don’t apply to me.

Now, I find myself driving down the road and wondering when it’s time to turn my windshield wipers and headlights on. There’s a rule that if you can’t see a thousand feet you have to have your headlights on. I spend a lot of time deciding whether or not I can see a thousand feet. They say the rule is so people can see me coming when I have my headlights on. The way I figure it, it really doesn’t make any difference how far I can see, if somebody is trying to see me coming they should decide how far they can see me, so that rule is ridiculous, and it really shouldn't apply to me.

As you can see, most of my life is being taken up with somebody else’s ridiculous rules. They should just have one rule for me, and that should be: “If it’s Ernie, he will decide what he should do, and the rest of the world should just deal with it”. It would be much simpler for the rest of the world to deal with me than it is for me to deal with the whole rest of the world.

Anyway, we are going to take a much needed vacation. My wife will be taking pictures, and I will be watching my watch to see if it’s 4:00PM yet.

I asked my wife why we had to be there before 4:00PM. Why couldn't the Motel just say; "Your room is ready and waiting, and the key is in the office when you get there." They wouldn't even have to say; "If you're too dumb to not show up for a room that's already paid for, that's just tough! We won't even have to change the sheets for the next customer". Nope they have to say; "You must check in by 4:00PM!" Anyway, my wife's answer was; "That rule probably doesn't apply to us."

Well, DUH....