Testing the Limits
I know most of us do it ( don’t we?). We often drive a little over the speed limit. Just a “little”. Easy enough to put a bit more pressure on the pedal, and can just as easily back off if you need to. After all who will notice? There are so many cars on the road and they are all cruising along through traffic, what will it hurt?
Guess what I have noticed is that these days there seems to be a lot more things we apply that sort of mentality.Going over the limit can bring rewards… like getting something out of reach that we never thought would get. As a matter of fact there are times that are actually socially noticed for achievement! We can call it going “above and beyond” – but the achievement that was accomplished by breaking the rules can feel good. So we do it again, and apply it more often. “We are risk takers”
After a while it becomes the norm, “breaking the law” for example “when nobody is going to get hurt” seems acceptable, yet we can be ignorant of the discord. We become numb to the reason there were limits, rules and laws…. We begin to think that those reasons are unworthy ( and sometimes they can be)- but we don’t try to help set new ones… we just continue to follow our own rules.
Then when someone gets caught going over the limitations of society , we may even want to defend them. Perhaps it is justification for our own misgivings about it. We could change it by working to make change, but that takes the effort. Here in the US anyway there are ways to get laws changed. and ways to protest peacefully to get change to happen ( without breaking the law). But for some I think, they are too immersed in their own ways to look for change. They are working too hard to test the limits and not to change them.
Kids: Dad’s advice; Find ways to make changes when things are not right, but understand that when you test the limits there will be time for consequences. Some times they may not happen immediately. One of my favorite sayings “what goes around comes around”.
Tracks In The Dust 