Boundaries

            Boundaries, we all need them. Some think there should be none to regulate behavior, business, and so on. Others think society needs stricter regulations to conduct business, live life, even how to worship. We may think we are responsible adults but given free reign we revert to bratty children. Regulation is like parenting, too much and you're a hovering: stifling the growth and independence of the child. Not enough and it's a recipe for disaster, the child will run amok and get into serious -even dangerous trouble.

            "What are you two doing up there?" the parent asks at omnious silence.

            "Uh nothing."

            With guidance and counsel we learn how to be safe, healthy and ethical. Strict vs. lenient, conservative vs. progressive, tug one way than the other trying to find a balance  between liberty and restraint. The people who wish one guiding principle- just do as the holy book (of your choice) says and everything will be right, except the classic rule books were written in a very different reality than today. The reason for debate is to discern which principles still apply.

            Your parents set down rules to protect you from harm. Like those for our food and drugs. No, you can't add sawdust to grated Parmesan cheese, or hand out drugs like candy, getting an entire population addicted. Leaded gas and CFC's were safe until we realized they weren't.

            Like children we have a bad habit of  blithely trying new things without thinking of the consequences. That's what happens when we are left without parental supervision. If you try to leap off a roof to fly like a superhero-that's your own stupidity.  but would you let your kid do it? Society needs to be a parent and ask, is this safe for others? Too often the reach for power and desire blind us to the risks for everyone because we don't see the risk to ourselves.

            From politicians to religious authorities, we look for parents to keep us from jumping off a roof but there are few mature ones. That's why society puts down boundaries to guard us against our immature, foolish nature. Boundaries shift and change as we grow and learn. As  St. Paul pointed out: "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became an adult, I put away childish things."

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