Often, when I'm working on a Sudoku puzzle, I realize that the rules make its solution exponentially easier. If you follow the rules - one of each number (1-9) in each row, column, and block - the rest becomes simple. For me, this is particularly helpful within the blocks, while solving rows/columns.
While I was working on one today, I wondered if that's how it is for life... you know, do the rules make things easier to solve? I suppose in some cases, they do - if you consider rules as a firm law. The summer I got my driver's license (which was actually in the spring, but I wasn't allowed to go anywhere until well into the summer), I was 17, which meant I wasn't supposed to be on the road after 9pm, unless I had been at work or school. Being home-schooled, and working at a library that closed at 8pm, I rarely had an excuse to be out past the curfew.
This meant that I had to be home by 9pm (which actually meant being home well before); my parents were sticklers for following the rules, their own and otherwise. I only violated this a few times, when I had underestimated the amount of time that it took to arrive home from any given location (less than 10 miles from my house, seeing as that's about as far as I was allowed to go... oh boy).
All of this for a 17 year old... no wonder why I'm so shocked to see parents letting their kids do whatever they want when they're 18 year old adults. When I was 18, my parents still expected me home by 9. Ironically, my mom was just telling me about this a few weeks ago. Apparently some of her most worried times were when I was attending a community college (as an 18 year old), and would arrive home later than expected. I remember once when she and my dad were on their way out the door, to track me down, since I was surely in a ditch, somewhere.
Thank goodness I don't want kids. Who knows what I would do - probably the same, or the opposite, since I don't know a happy medium. Granted, my parents are actually a little less strict than some of my friends' parents... but still. They were pretty extreme. My mom says it's just because having kids was a very intentional move on their part, and they wanted to do a good job. I can understand that, but I can also understand letting your (responsible) kids stay out a little later than 9 or 10pm without getting too worried.
That said, I think rules made staying out of trouble a lot easier for me when I was younger (and now, still). I didn't have to think about much of anything; I knew the wrath that would be upon me, if I tried anything. Not to mention, I knew that I would feel extremely guilty, for doing something that I knew was wrong. I didn't want to do something that was wrong, either. (I still don't.) What I'm trying to figure out, though, is how that plays out for the rest of life. Does always following the rules make things easier? Whose rules do you follow? How do you know that they're the best rules to be followed? Are you sure?
I guess I'll have the rest of my life to figure those out...
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