I once took four personality tests within a three week period. It wasn't on purpose. They were unrelated, but it was odd that they all happened more or less concurrently. One was at work during a team-building meeting or something. Another one was as part of the admissions process to a grad school. I don't really remember why I took the other two. But I remember learning that I'm rather rule-based. That my initial response to most decisions is, "What are the rules?" The first thing I attempt to resolve a conflict is to follow the rules. Make sure that we have the right rules, that we understand them, and that we're actually following them. This solves many problems.

I used to be more dedicated to the rules than I am now. To be honest, I've been having some difficulty with the rules lately. I still mostly follow the rules, but they seem less critical than they once did.

Again, to be frank, this is more related to the church than anything. The Catholic church seems to have a renewed focus on enforcing "the rules". I'm not enamored with this whole direction. I'll rant a moment before I go on.

<rant>What's the deal with the music? I keep hearing these threats that the Catholic church in America is going to come up with "the hymnal" from which all liturgical music must be selected. I also keep hearing about how wonderful chant and choral music and pipe organs are, and how we need to get back to more of that. Why? What's so good about that particular genre of music? Admittedly, I don't want to hear rap or heavy metal music in church (or anywhere, for that matter), but forcing me to listen to medieval polyphony wouldn't be much better. I don't understand why that music is considered "sacred" and other music is not. Or old hymns. I like some old hymns. Others are bad. It just seems stupid to deem the music from a particular period in history the only appropriate music for all future liturgy. </rant>

So, the rules. Most rules are created as a response to abuse, as defense against that abuse. That's not a particularly stellar birth: being created as a response to wrong. If this is in fact true, then following the rules is an exercise in avoiding the mistakes of others. This is not positive energy.

I'm not against rules; I'm rule-based. The rules are the backbone, the skeleton, of the body. Without the bones the body is a blob of mush on the floor. The skull protects the brain. The ribcage protects the heart and lungs. The phalanges in my hands allow me to type these words.

But the bones without the flesh and blood and breath and organs is death. So too the rules, by themselves, are death.

I don't want to follow that.