Finding The Balance: Rules To Live By Might Mean Breaking The Rules
Civilized life requires rules to function properly. Without rules civilization would be a chaotic mess and an oxymoron. The icon for Justice is a scale which signifies balancing different points of view and weighing one idea against another. The mere presence of balancing scales represents the ambiguity and imperfection of laws and rules. If all the laws and rules were without question then Lady Justice would be holding digital scales or price computing scales. Life is not so clear and the rules we live by often have their intentions subverted.
Rules are put in place to serve those living under them. That is the idea at any rate. A red traffic light indicates stop and accidents and fatalities are avoided. Sometimes laws become counter productive or take on a life of there own. A red light at 2:00 a.m. on a deserted road still demands a driver to stop and wait, even if there are no other cars for miles around; it’s the law. There are places where you can get a parking ticket during certain hours on street cleaning days; a law that has a logic to it. You can also receive a parking ticket during those hours even if the street cleaners are off that day for a holiday. Like all aspects of life, rules require balance, they are after all here to serve us, not us to serve them.
There is a story of two Zen monks hiking down a path. They came from a monastery advocating celibacy. The rules were stringently enforced and required the devotees to avoid all contact with women. The two monks came to a river and found a stunning and sexy woman in a fine silk dress at the waters edge. The bridge had been whisked away by the river. The woman was desperate to get to the other side, but couldn’t find away across the river without destroying her ceremonial robes. Without a second thought one of the monks lifted her on his shoulders and carried her across the river. She thanked him for his assistance and said he averted great pain and humiliation her family would have had if she failed to show up, or arrived in muddy garments. The woman hurried down the path and so did the two monks. After walking in silence for several miles the younger monk couldn’t hold back his agitation. “How could you pick that woman up and carry her through the water? It’s a violation of our devotional obligations?” The older monk turned and smiled. “Is that so?” he said. The younger monk thought about this for a moment. After a pause the older monk continued; “Anyway, I put her down on the other side of the river, but it seems you are still carrying her.”
If the older monk had followed the rules precisely, he would have left the woman on the stranded on the wrong side of the river, failing his higher values to be of service in the world. Jesus once passed through a cornfield with his disciples on the Sabbath. They were hungry and ate some corn. When charged with breaking the Sabbath Jesus replied that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. The trials of Nuremburg hinged on the concept that rules, laws and orders are not to be blindly followed when they conflict with higher moral principals.
Many religious teachings, many philosophical thinkers, and many legal arbiters all try to remind us that rules and laws are here to serve society, not the other way around.
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