No rules, just write

Last night, a guy kicked me in the face when SLIDING INTO FIRST BASE (no comment). Today, I have a fat lip, a big red mark on my check, a sore neck and an overall swollen and bruised left side of the face.

To me, softball seems like a dangerous game when you don’t know the rules. If that guy had known the first thing about softball or baseball, I wouldn’t be feeling today like I got into a bar fight last night…Which brings up an interesting point.

I remember my friend Steven (a Brit who moved to the States several years ago) telling me that the major difference he noticed between living here and living there is Rules. And it’s true. If you stop and notice it, Americans are just so much more legislated and regulated than Europeans…not only with actual laws, but with warning and regulatory labels slapped on everything from experiences (“you must be this tall to ride this ride”) to products (“putting this bag over your head and sealing it can lead to death by suffocation.” Yeah, thanks.).

In the States, there are very clear restrictions and regulations on most things, and when people break those rules, everyone else gets litigious. There’s a pretty strong culture of, “Here’s what you should do, and here’s what you shouldn’t. If you follow these rules, your life will be better.”

Also, EVERYONE is a rulemaker….government, corporations, parents, the media. Now that I’ve left, I notice the fear-mongering in the U.S. media so much more, like my beloved Today Show pushing stories like, “The hidden window danger that is threatening your child’s life,” or “Do you REALLY know what’s in your food?? Take action against cancer-causing preservatives today.”

Where you might see a “hot fashions” article on Cosmopolitan Magazine UK, you see 10 articles in the US version telling you how to catch your man, how to keep your man, how to please your man, etc. The implication is that if you don’t follow their rules, you run the risk of driving your “man” away, or worse, turning into a 30-year-old cat lady, alone and undesirable forever.

Not that I’m saying the American rules culture is a bad thing, necessarily. I think that especially when you’re used to it, there’s a great deal of comfort to be found in rules. They even the playing field, they let you know what you can expect, and they give you a sense of control in an otherwise chaotic world.

When I was in Thailand last year, the people were so laid back and the society so unregulated that your 10 am scheduled bus trip probably wouldn’t happen until noon, and you just had to deal with it. London isn’t quite so bad at that, but there are aspects of life here that astound me with their lack of organization or structure. Somehow things manage to get done, but you can’t help to think that with a little more explanation and a clear course of action, life would run a little smoother…but I suppose that’s the American in me talking.

With that said, I suppose it's not surprising that it's difficult for me to approach a task like this blog without inadvertently creating some rules and guidelines for it. Seeing as how this is my 20th entry, and I suppose that ought to be cause for reflection of some sort, I will share them now:

Try to maintain a balanced approach to my comparisons of the British and American culture. Okay, I said try. I really am trying!

Try to be positive. I’ve written some really depressing “I miss my family and friends” rants that never made it on here in an interest of upholding this rule.

Keep people out of it. With the exception of a few people who don’t mind (and poor Alex, who didn’t really have a choice), I have tried to keep from mentioning or showing anybody I’ve met. There’s really no sense in dragging innocent bystanders into my apparent newly developed need to purge my life online.

Don’t talk about my relationship. I’m not saying that I won’t break this one at some point, but I think some personal things should not be for public consumption.

Don’t be long-winded. Herein lies my biggest failure to date….which is why I should just stop. Now.

Thank you all for reading.