It does seem that to every rule there is an exception. This rule is the exception to the rule. We had a friend that decided to become a vegetarian. There are lots of different types of vegetarians, so he came up with a simple definition of what he could not eat. He would not eat anything that had eyes. We said that he should make one exception, potatoes.
Another vegetarian friend made one exception to his “no meat” rule. When he had pizza he had pepperoni. His justification was that there is no meat in pepperoni, just filler and chemical by products. Come to think of it, he might be right!
We know people who do not believe in mixed marriages or in same sex marriages. It seems like that is contradictory. If a marriage between a male and a female is not a mixed marriage, what is?
Think of the number of people you know who are “tough on crime.” They say that anyone that commits a crime should be punished to the full extent of the law. They also exempt themselves, at least from laws they do not agree with, like traffic laws.
When we were in college a book was published showing that women and African-Americans were inherently less intelligent than white men. That was the same week that Mensa released the name of the smartest American from their testing. She was black.
Someone we know extremely well is a natural blond. In a science class, she was accused of dying her hair, by the instructor. The book said that blond hair is finer, and when they used micrometers to measure the thickness of all the students hair in the room, her hair was the thickest.
In a linguistics class in college a professor was going over some of the general rules. He stated that in many languages a double negative is used for emphasis. In English and mathematics a double negative is a positive. In spite of this, in no language is a double positive a negative. At that point in the lecture, a voice piped up from the back of the room and said “yeh right!”
There are other types of exceptions. Like the family with ten children, who had all been taught a strong moral code but had little ambition. They all ended up at minimum wage jobs, except for one. He got into trouble and, as a juvenile, was incarcerated. There, he studied, and when he got out, he finished school, went to college and became a successful doctor.
At one time we were in a market for a camera. When we went to a store we often used, they showed us one camera that was much less than the competition because Consumer’s Reports had given it a bad rating. The store showed us the article and we trusted that their research was accurate. Reading the article was great. All of the features they said were missing were ones we would never us. The functions they said tended to distract the average user, were features we would have been disappointed with if they were missing. So, based on their research, we bought the camera. It served us well and out-lasted the one they recommended, which a friend of ours had bought. But then, we are an exception.
On a similar note, we were with our grandchildren awhile back. We were in line with one of them to go down a waterslide. They looked up at us and said that we were not grandparents. They see all of their friend’s grandparents, and their grandparents are on the other side. Grandparents bring children places like water parks and sit and watch. Grandparents do not go down waterslides, go snorkeling or many of the other activities we do with them.
Exceptions can be fun. They are the things that make each of us unique. Enjoy those times when, for your own good, you are the exception.
Chris and Dave
