Are you a rule-obeyer or a rule-slayer?

 

(Photo:writer's own)

I was brought up to believe that if you stick to the rules, you can’t go wrong. 

How many of us remember the following mantra?

At the kerb, HALT.

Eyes left, eyes right, eyes left again.

Then quick march. Left, right, left right.

This was the Highway Code, military style, which small people learnt in the fifties!

Of course it’s wise to obey the rule to drive on the left in the UK, and to give way to traffic on your right at a roundabout. There are lots of social rules that most of us are happy to obey, because they make life run more smoothly. But...

This morning I went into the local infants school with a new volunteer, to present an Open the Book session. There was quite a strict training for running the sessions, and we were instructed not to deviate from the script AT ALL. And so the members of the whole team have NEVER deviated from the script. AT ALL.

Today I was working with a lady who is an ordained vicar, and is married to the chaplain of the naval training base in our town. It was her first time. I am wondering if she had been excused the training for Open the Book, because she had a whale of a time deviating, expanding on what Jesus wants, and giving the children a beautiful example of the power of friendship at the London Marathon, etc..

Afterwards, outside the school, I said how much I’d liked what she said, and that she was lucky to be able to deviate from the script, which we (meaning non-clergy) had been told not to do.

‘Oh, I don’t bother with things like that,’ she said, cheerily.

As I walked home, I thought about rules. The rules of grammar, in particular, and how occasionally you come across a writer who deviates from them. Later I found a list online of ten well-known authors who have ignored the basic rules of punctuation. Is this because the writer was being 

a) innovative? b) brave? c) challenging? d) foolish e) selfish? f) outrageous?

I'd be interested in which answer you would choose, because I think I may overdo it on rules. Example - even when I'm writing a first draft, I am compelled to spell every word correctly, stopping mid-flow to look it up. I had met my Open the Book friend before, and I suspect, strongly, she has a habit of being a rule-ignorer, or perhaps I should say, a rule-questioner, but she is so confident and joyful, I don't think anyone ever minds. 

Human beings are so different and fascinating, and the great thing is, God loves every single one of us. 

Veronica Bright loves telling stories. As a former reception class teacher in a Cornish village primary school, the best part of the day was gathering the children together and making up all sorts of amazing things. Her pupils probably believed there was an elf living in the cupboard, and that the spider who frequented the sink had the power of speech. They inspired her non-fiction books for collective worship and many of her prize-winning short stories, now self-published in three collections.