NO DANCING!

That's the rule!  They told us that when we were kids in church in the South.  Good grief.

Rules have been the source of cultural distress for thousands of years, of course.  Who gets to rule, and what rules are imposed on us regular folks. 

There are good rules, we all agree. No killing, no stealing, don't lie, don't hurt other people. The reasonable next steps are things like respect your parents and take care of them when they're old. Heal the sick, feed the hungry, make a place for everyone. Love others like you love yourself.

Then there are the odd rules that persist and make little sense.  Honor killings, kidnapping students, forbidding girls to study in school, bikinis and burkas, insisting that porn is the same as free speech, and ... no dancing. Someone thought that was a good idea, I suppose.

A broadly understood concept, commonly shared
among religions and philosophies ...

While the rule of law is indeed a recognized necessity, no one suggests that it addresses the root of the problem.  It's the individual heart, right?

A good heart rules well, especially if it is refined over years by good counsel and experience.

Law has been shown to define the boundary against which we press, struggling for the best advantage, looking for the loophole.  A good heart, on the other hand, is pushing in the opposite direction, struggling to do right, looking for the opportunity to serve well.

It's funny ... funny strange, not humorous ... how little time we spend pursuing the goal of a good heart.  Little is said of it in the public arena, and perhaps little in our daily conversations as well.  In the business world, it's a little odd or even uncomfortable when 'doing the right thing' comes up in a meeting.  Why is that, I wonder.  In today's world where it seems that those who have the gold make the rules, is there a good path, a better way that an individual can follow?