Not sure what it is about rules, we don’t want to live under them, but we also cannot live without them.
Rules have been around since the beginning of time. For billions of years everything went well, following established rules. Then man showed up, and almost immediately broke a rule. From thereon things went down that proverbial hill. At times I feel we must be close to bottoming out, but then, who knows.
Not that the first people, Adam or Eve, had any special need, or an emergency. Far from it, the name of the place where they lived is even now being used to describe a place or situation with utopia like service, it provided all that Adam or Eve could ever need or want. Their life was also not restricted by an overload of rules, there was only one. Life was just fantastic, there is only one way to describe it, paradise.
So, what happened, one may ask. Well, there was one rule, nothing drastic at all, more like if your mom told you and your brother or sister not to eat a cookie before supper. Now it so happened that Adam and Eve had a visitor (watch the “friends” you are hanging out with) who told them that the rule was not really a firm rule, it was only a suggestion, and that if they eat the cookie, they would find out how good it tasted. They would be able to identify the ingredients and bake the cookies themselves. Being tempted by their visitor and overcome by the desire to be able to control things themselves. Adam and Eve disobeyed, thinking it to be an opportunity to take life into their own hands. Little did Adam and Eve know, that in God’s Kingdom, rules are like links in a chain, if one link gets broken, the chain is broken.
When Adam and Eve were found out, the excuses and finger pointing promptly started “she made me do it”, sounds familiar? Some things never change, we are obviously suffering from the same disobedience (called sin) condition as Adam and Eve.
For further study of this issue you may want to dust off your Bible or click Genesis 3.
Having a situation where the number of books that I receive exceed my reading speed, and much material only receives a cursory review from me, before being put aside for future consideration, the two stacks of books on my night table were becoming precariously tall. To avoid an accidental avalanche of my literary treasure tumbling to the floor, possibly causing a ruckus in the middle of the night, I decided to be proactive, and place the books on the floor in a more controlled fashion. Looking at the topics and titles, I decided to not leave my night table totally bare and selected five volumes to be placed back within reach, for reading as inspired. One of those books is Dr. Jordan Peterson’s “12 Rules for Life – an antidote to chaos” Having for the past few months tried to maneuver my way through highly scientific topics, dealing frequently with discussions not only beyond my understanding, but even stretching my imagination, I decided to go for something a little lighter, and selected the 12 Rules as my next read. Being in my senior years, I saw myself as having sufficient life experience to be able to form independent, fact-based opinions on whatever rules Dr Peterson would propose in his book. Interestingly, it was exactly this kind of argument that prevented me from reading 12 Rules when I first got it. Like, what rules, that I did not already knew, could this book possibly teach me? And if there were any, it is too late for me, what is the point, and “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”.
Now, after reading the first chapter, I know I should have given this book the attention it deserves when I first received it. It was on April 24. 2017 and came as part of a ticket combo, to attend a talk by Dr Peterson at the UBC Fee Speech Club. This was in Dr. Peterson’s early rise to fame. In the meantime, his book sold over 3 Mil copies. Unfortunately, I suspect that many other copies ended up like mine, unread and collecting dust. That is a shame.
Reflecting on the scientific findings Dr Peterson outlines in his “Overture” and first chapter, I can certainly testify, that they accurately match my life’s experience.
“Stand up straight with your shoulders back” is Dr Peterson’s rule #1. It comes across so basic, to be almost considered silly, and not as a worthwhile suggestion for your strive to improve one’s “hierarchical position”, meaning “doing better in life”. It is interesting that one of the pet peeve’s I had when walking, as a child, with my mother, was her constant slapping on my back, underlined with the words “Brust raus” (chest forward), or “walk like a Thiele”. I’m certain that my mother never had heard of serotonin or knew much if anything about neurochemistry, but her life experience and eventually mine, was and is, that physical posture fosters confidence in oneself, and respect from others.
I will share some of my experiences in my next post. Horstt