Mrs. Pettiford's Rule to Live by

I had an interesting conversation with a friend last week. At one point in her life, she felt it necessary to attend finishing school. She went faithfully, two time a week, to an upper society woman's home for several weeks. My friend, who I'll call Judy, said she went with a preconceived idea of who this woman (whom I'll call Mrs. Pettiford) was, what she was all about, and figured she'd just grit her teeth and get what she needed to get out of this situation. After a while, the other women in the class stopped coming regularly and often, Judy and Mrs. Pettiford had the three hours all to themselves to talk and get to know each other.

Judy learned that Mrs. Pettiford, was, in fact, no shrinking violet. She had built quite a power structure within her formidable world by knowing the rules and Judy was putting herself in a very good position by learning the rules from her. Mrs. Pettiford shared the secret to feeling secure within yourself in any situation: Know The Rules. If you Know The Rules, then, and only then, can you break The Rules.

I thought a lot about my conversation with Judy. It seems to me that there are two kinds of women. Women who Know The Rules in order to follow them and women who Know the Rules in order to live life tossing them aside. I have been a rule follower. I follow the recipe, the pattern, the map. But as I said to Judy, I'm pretty damn familiar with The Rules. I want to see what life is like outside The Rules, coloring outside of the lines, not playing well with others.

This should be interesting.