Runnels: Followin’ the rules

When ol’ ma nature does the dealin’, you know the average feller ain’t goin’ to get a very good hand. Your first six years are controlled by ol’ pa and ma. Whether they know anything or not, you’re stuck with them.

After six years of age you start to school. Then, not only do you have the laws of mom and dad, you pick up a few more rules and restrictions from school.

It’s kinda like your first job. When the bell rings, you don’t argue, you just cast your little peepers on the pages of knowledge and partake heavily.

About midday the tinkle of little bells tell you to go outside and play—recess. Nobody asks you if you want to play at first bell and take on smarts at the second bell.

That’s tacky to even think that way. You know — fall in line and don’t question anything or anybody.

If you have the endurance to go through several institutions, each one givin’ you more rules and regulations, you end up with a piece of paper that says you listen real good and do what you’re told.

At whatever stage of the game you jump the traces and think you’ve got all the smarts your little cranium will hold, you take whatever papers you’ve come up with in hopes of landin’ a job.

So you land a job with another boss who tells you your new rules and regulations. If you’re lucky, you can keep this job, which will give you almost enough food and shelter, until you’re sixty-five years of age.

Then they open the gate and the rest of your life is yours to do as you please — see the world, climb mountains, swim rivers, chase women — whatever that is, if you had strength and money enough to do so.

Most likely, with your fixed income and your insurance policy that was cancelled you’re barely able to survive in a retirement home.

Ain’t life great — that is. If you’re the average dude that gets that education and does what he is told.

Courtesy of Tom Runnels Publications. Copyrighted and Registered by Tom Runnels and Saundra Runnels Revocable Trust. Printed in The Banner Press: Oct. 27, 1988.