I have always been a rebel. Now that I'm a 33 year old mother of six children with a Grown Up Job and two dogs and a bird and I buy things like washing machines and car parts instead of pot and spray paint*, I should have grown out of it. But no.
Now, I think there is a reason.
There should not be all these rules.
I am dead serious, so for those of you who know how sarcastic I can be, please understand that I mean this.
Look at the rules we have here in the US, as a nation. For instance, the way we buy a house and the land upon which it sits, yet we pay money to the government for it every year. You know what? No.
Or what about how long it takes to get your taxes done? What is that about? No more taxes. No. I mean it. No more federal government, period.
Let's look at state rules. The state is in charge of education. Why? What qualifications do these people have? So guess what, state? No.
How about cities? One city near me has a rule that residents cannot grow a vegetable plant over six feet tall. A woman had her entire garden (and source of food) destroyed by police because her tomato plant was almost at the limit. And what's the point, anyway? Shut up, city.
I lived in a city that would fine you if your lawn grew over three inches. Three inches, you guys. You know what? It's my grass, I own it. If I want three and a half inch blades of grass it is my own business. Let me ask you: Who has the time? Who has all this time and energy to be all, "Man I hate those four inch blades of grass. I am going to make them illegal!" And then what neighbor has time to call the police and tattle about it? Really, America? Really.
There's a guy in his seventies being fined thousands of dollars for, get this, feeding birds. In his yard. Birdfeeders, y'all.
And while I'm at it - garage sale permits? Also no.
Or how bout those homeowner's associations? I refuse to live anywhere with an HOA, because I don't need some over-evolved PTA mom telling me what kind of car I can own, where I can park it, and how loud I can play music on property that - wait for it - is already mine. I realize that some people like this kind of life, because God forbid that you live next door to someone with an RV that isn't parked correctly. Lives ruined, folks. Lives ruined.
And at home...so many rules in the home! I think it's the only place they belong, actually, but my goal is to have my kids off rules long before they are adults. If they can't make good decisions at home, how are they possibly going to make them in college?
I hate rules. All of them. If I want to be good, I'll be good because I want to. Never will I ever, one time, be good because someone told me to.
It's not like I think that people should run around serially murdering each other or anything. But if a guy has come to the point that serial murder is his one passion in life, then he's not the kind of guy who is real big on rule-following, anyway. But the upside to the no rules thing? Let somebody catch him. I call it "Insta-justice" and it's free.
"But MannyRee, people will be speeding!" Guess what? They already are!
"But people will be cutting in line!" Okay, get rid of lines. (Another thing I hate and do not believe in.)
"But people might be able to sell their own stuff in their own front yard without paying someone who has nothing to do with it!" One can only hope.
God gave us free will. He could have forced us to be good, and pay for parking, or whatever, but He didn't. Because it only counts if you want to be good - not if you are forced to.
GEEZ, 'Merica. Let's all agree to Wild West it from now on.
*Okay, I wasn't great at being a rebel. I never bought pot, and the only spray paint I have ever purchased was driven by something Pinterest-y.
