“Never try and teach a pig to sing..."

"It wastes your time and annoys the pig.”

That's one of Lazarus Long's* rules of life. I started thinking of what are my rules of life were after a conversation In SL recently. Many of us go through our lives without any conscious thought of how we want to be treated and how we treat people. Others have spent a good deal of time examining their world view and philosophy of life.

Our beliefs and value systems come from a variety of sources, our parents and siblings, our religious institutions, our culture, and our peers, just to name a few. For some of us our rules of life are set in stone early in life and we don't change. Myself, I have tried to grow and change and improve myself as I have gotten older.

I grew up in a small southern town in the 1950s and 60s. I grew up in an environment that was racially stratified. I grew up Southern Baptist, white, and privileged. But I was lucky. My parents were not overtly prejudiced. My father particularly taught me to respect a man for what he says and does, and not judge him by the color of his skin. My mom, who was Catholic before marrying my dad and moving to the South, taught me to be skeptical of religious dogma. My parents, both Army veterans during WWII, also taught me to share what I had with others. I guess that is why I became a teacher, to share my knowledge and experience with my students.

I still am a Baptist and I believe these things. Jesus Christ died for our sins and was resurrected. I believe the the priesthood of all believers. I don't need someone to interpret the Bible for me. There are other points in my religious beliefs, but let's get back to rules. In Matthew 7:12 Jesus says "Do to others what you would have them do to you". That is my basic rule for behavior in real life and Second Life.

There are other ways of saying it. John Wayne in "The Shootist" said, "I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I require the same from them."

I don't have a whole long list of rules for my life. I just want to be nice to people and have them be nice to me. I know that doesn't always happen. Some people are not nice. Some people are rude, dishonest and untrustworthy.

Lastly sometimes people make mistakes. They say or do the wrong thing. People get hurt intentionally or otherwise. I didn't speak to my brother for ten years because he ruined the paint job on my car "decorating" it on my wedding day. It took a long time to forgive him, but I did. You can have have all the rules to your life that you want, but if you can't forgive people, you will end up with a very short list of friends.

*Lazarus Long was one of Robert A. Heinlein's most popular characters in his science fiction books.