Tag: breaking the rules

Breaking the Rules (Essence Over Form)

 

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
― Pablo Picasso

 

I was told tonight on social media that my haikus would never sell in Japan because I don’t stick to the strict rules of haiku. There is supposed to be mention of a season in each one and strict attention not only to syllable count but sentence construction within so that:

The autumn flower
in its last breath’s conclusion
prepares for a new life

might work and satisfy but

Seeking more knowledge
I submerge within shadow
finding my substance

doesn’t even tho it may prove more evocative for many and definitely is a clearer form of self-expression. I replied that to analyze poetry with slavish attention to rules might very well miss the point of the poem entirely. It’s always good to have an understanding of the rules of any system yet I value essence over form any day. It may not sell in Japan or anywhere else but it is definitely a more satisfying experience.
Blessings, G

 

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Nature Friend (Barbatos)Barbatos by G A Rosenberg

 

Insect AbstractInsect Abstract by G A Rosenberg

 

Breaking Social Restrictions (or perhaps just Bending them a might)

 

“No person of quality ever remembers social restrictions save when considering how most piquantly to break them.”
― James Branch Cabell

 

It started in my Junior year of High School. My parents sent me to a private school that had an amazing number of rules that seemed to govern every aspects of our time and behaviour. It seemed so much more restrictive than the public school I had been in the year before. Fairly early on tho I began to gain a new understanding. Because there were so many rules to keep track of, the part of the faculty responsible for discipline were kept on their toes. As in any bureaucratic system the more rules there are, the easier it is to manipulate the system. Because I showed an aptitude for math, they wanted to move me up one class. They told me it was up to me to decide where I felt most comfortable. I could take the lower class third period and have fourth period free or I could take the more advanced class forth period and have the third period free. It really was an easy decision. I told my forth period teacher that I was taking the easier math and the third period teacher, I was taking the advanced class and for three months, I enjoyed a double free period. By the time they had caught up to me and decided to keep me in detention for quite awhile, I had left to see if there was life outside of high school. Five months later when I came back, the heads of the school were rather dumbfounded and allowed me to take two classes during the summer and graduate with my class the next year. To be honest they didn’t know what hit them..
Since then I have learned that breaking and bending rules social and otherwise have consequences, yet not all of them are necessarily negative ones. Its a matter of self-honesty (Bob Dylan said that if you lived outside the law you have to be honest and he was correct) , understanding the reasons why the rules are there in the first place (not all rules are bad–there are as many rules are in place to promote safety as there are rules that benefit the convenience of those in charge). If we rebel for the sake of rebellion only than we are still being controlled by others, in that we are reacting to them rather than following what is right for us. Figuring out what is right for ourselves and following that is of primary importance. Didn’t William Shakespeare say “Above all else to thine own self be true”
Blessings, G

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Pulling the MoonPulling the Moon by G A Rosenberg

 
The Beating of WingsThe Beating of Wings by G A Rosenberg

Know the Rules

 

“The Way of Mastery is to break all the rules—but you have to know them perfectly before you can do this; otherwise you are not in a position to transcend them.”
― Aleister Crowley

 

In my junior year of high school I learned that once I understood how a system worked then I could get away with a lot more. The prep school I attended had scheduling rules for everything and everyone knew where they had to be at any given time. Because I showed myself to be skilled mathematically they wanted to ease me into the more advanced class so they gave me a choice. I could go to the easier class third period and have a study period right after or I could go to the advanced class fourth period and have a study period first. I chose to tell the third period Math teacher I was going to the fourth period Math and the fourth period teacher I was going to third and gave myself two study halls. That worked well for three months. I hadn’t come up with a contingency plan for what happened when the time came to turn in my grades and they talked with each other. After my suspension I still ended up with an A in Math for the year.
In any system the better we know the rules and more importantly their reason for existing in the first place, the easier it is to shape them for our benefit. In the tarot, once you learn the meanings of the cards and how they balance each other out, you can break away from the established meanings and see the complete reading as a gestalt of forces balancing each other out. This doesn’t work quite as well until you learn meanings and placements of the cards.
When dealing with people you have to learn the niceties of manners and social protocols of whatever social group you find yourself in before you can play fast and loose. Then if you do it in the right way, you are a hero. If you do it awkwardly you end up the buffoon. In my life I have done both.
Within ourselves, we have our own set of rules and occasionally we come across one we didn’t know we had, usually when someone we know and trusted inadvertently breaks it. The better we know ourselves, the better we can learn how to handle it when our rules get stepped on and the better able we are to edit the rule book.
Blessings, G

 

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Staring at the Ceiling MandalaStaring at the Ceiling by G A Rosenberg

 

CrowlymasCrowleymas by G A Rosenberg