Friday morning here at the old Cafe. Not much shakin.

My daughter is sick.

Projectile vomiting sick.

One good thing about getting older for me has been I don't get that kind of sick.

I feel sorry for the little tyke. She came home with her new basketball tennis shoes last night. She isn't so little anymore, 18 in a few days, but she's still my youngest daughter.

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I've been suffering some fools not so gladly lately.

Have you ever noticed how some people can have a "compliance at all costs" attitude to life? Maybe the "letter before the spirit" of the law would be another way to say it.

This kind of person has a tendency to drive me nuts. Not that we don't need some of that in some areas. You wouldn't want an anesthesiologist who sort of just winged it.

On the other hand there are often circumstances in life where the rule can be broken or at least bent either for the good of all concerned or at least with no harm.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about.

Many years ago I worked in an office building in an urban area. The rule was that you needed a company badge to be allowed inside the office spaces, unless you were being escorted by someone with a badge. The point of the rule was that we didn't want the wrong sorts wondering about the office. To be honest with you I don't know what the written law was; our Company rules were much to convoluted, long and unclear to really know the written law. I think it may have involved getting a temporary badge from a security office several miles away.

There weren't any security officers or even a receptionist desk in the lobby of that building. There were cipher locks on the interior doors that served to keep people out of the office spaces who weren't supposed to be there.

One Saturday I had stopped by work to pick up some paperwork to take home with me. I had my two young daughters with me so of course rather than leaving them alone in the car I brought them into the office.

They were well behaved and very few people were in the office on a Saturday to disturb anyway. Actually most people were always really glad to see your kids at work.

A "letter of the law guy" saw me and told me I was breaking a rule. I just laughed and said something like, "surely you jest?"

Actually no. He was serious.

That guy is a manager; charged with enforcing rules. I am dealing with him even now...thankfully from a distance.

My basic instinct is to use common sense. In my estimation common sense dictates a certain level of pragmatism (something that works given the current situation) and a desire to do no harm.

Sometimes rules contradict common sense. So I break them or ignore them.

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I'm sure you can think of some letter of the law types you have run into. Maybe law enforcement, maybe religious, maybe some extra meticulous office person who's hung up on the proper form and form filling technique beyond the point of rationality. You run into some of this in the military, maybe with the IRS or other large bureaucracies.

My impression is that some folks don't have the "why?" gene. If a rule is written down they believe it should be followed. I think life is too short to not bend or break as many rules as you can. I say that in the spirit of having fun, living your life to the fullest, showing compassion for others...having some joy about things.

This philosophy assumes of course that you have an internal value system to guide you so you don't hurt others.

Maybe something like...

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum.

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I'm taking a nice deep breath and not going to worry about the rule enforcers of the world. We all have our place.

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Glad it's Friday.