Don't Tell Me

The unofficial rule-making people annoy me. They are the ones who say that to do what they don't happen to like, is wrong or rude or incorrect. I believe there should be rules but some rules are made by fools. One of the "rules" is to write e mails that are three to five words, no more no less, long. They also "rule" out added things such as graphics or doodles etc. I happen to write and my habit is length and verbiage. I try to keep the outpourings to a minimum but that is my habit and I refuse to change. I write in sentences, not phrases, because I love the sentence complete with proper punctuation. It is what I am and what I do and I am not going to change. Rules or no rules. I bend the sentence rules a bit by using the incomplete sentence  and sometimes I end  with a preposition but generally, I shun the pruning of words. These can be found on itty bitty screens alighted in hands, usually youngish ones. "YRU g'n",translated, is - Why are you going?  "IM" is - I am ('going' is understood apparently). The advent of the HHD or Hand Held Device has likely encouraged the informal  rule makers to dictate that longer "real" English should be sliced and diced to save time and fingertips. If the sender is walking and chewing gum at the same time, he/she needs to be quick about it or something real could happen such as a blue bird sighting or perhaps a garden in passing. It is a faster world out there they tell me. I could add something to that but it would be rude. Then there are quasi rules about walking along sidewalks. When I dared to walk on the left rather than the right, I was tongue-clicked and groaned at. Okay, I thought, I am not an automobile, I am a person and this sidewalk is large and I do not see a yellow line down the middle and even if I did, I would likely hop over it, depending on my mood, and walk on whichever side I pleased. In a large city such as New York, I can see that rule - perhaps. The folk there walk at mega speed and in their running shoes as though there were an Oscar waiting for them at their destination. I think they are angry people perhaps because their choice is either walk or take a taxi and walking being faster and certainly cheaper, raises the temperature and perhaps temperament, when one might wish to have a shower upon arriving at work and there isn't one. Well, that's my theory. We are all ruled by rules that are generally unofficial and often silly but for some reason we think they keep us orderly. When a rebel comes along and breaks the non-rule rules we consider them "weird" but in truth he/she is simply working "outside the box" for his/her own reasons. Next time you see a guy wearing a skirt, I did recently, go ahead and stare. Break the staring rule, we all want to anyway. Why quell? And ask him why he is doing what he does. I did that once at a market and was told that the skirt was not a kilt but a garment that had been worn in a country during their wars. The chap manufactued them in khaki and went on and on about it. Sometimes breaking a silly rule turns out an act of sanity and not a little fun.