In my Great Grandmother’s house hung a peculiar photograph.  It was Grandma J on a ship with a funny pirate and his fake parrot.  This photograph made no sense on the surface. Great Grandma J was a no-nonsense woman who stuck to the rules of propriety.  If she saw a big-breasted woman showing of her figure, she would tell that lady to, “Stick those under your armpits!”  If a grandchild broke a social rule, she would get a tongue lashing from Great Grandma J!

The meaning of the photograph remained a mystery, till my wonderfully mischievous Grandpa T told me the story behind it: that’s the day she broke the rules. Shock! Horror! Huh?  That was the one and only day that Grandma J downed margaritas and ended up making friends with old Black Beard.  When Grandpa T teased her about the photograph, she would neither admit guilt nor defend her actions–just close her eyes and smile.

Great Grandma J hung that pirate picture on the wall for years because it was a day that she LIVED fully in the moment with no regrets.  Keeping all the rules and fearing failure leads to a very boring and predictable existence.  This declaration does not mean a person should manipulate regulations like Bernie Madoff or live life in GTA mode.  A vibrant and perceptive individual knows what rules to break and when.  Two famous examples include Steve Jobs and Richard Branson.

Unfortunately, most people do not teach the younger generations to break rules like Steve Jobs.  Lazy school teachers push children to behave, obey, and never, never break the rules.  However, the jungles of life require more inventiveness from the one species that learned not to flee or fight, but to survive through thought. Tell yourself and the next generation that a lot of mistakes are not fatal, and that there is a place to sneak a cookie, to jump in with eyes closed, to breaking the rules.

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