Restrictions

There has been a funny story in the news here recently, at least funny to me. Some of you would like to read it yourself, so here is a link.

http://www.nbc12.com/Global/story.asp?S=13151146

While this story isn't earth shattering, or will change life as we know, it does serve as a wonderful example of the restrictions we has human being place upon ourselves.

It's a silly story about people protesting the demand that they buy new mailboxes. So to show their dissatisfaction with the community order, they spray painted their mailboxes "yellow". Woooo! Radical. Probably being investigated and under surveillance.

Now let me describe this community. First, here is their website.

http://www.brandermill.com/

The community was conceived around a large lake on a massive plot of land in an unused wooded area across the river from the city. The difference with this suburb was the rules and regulations that MUST be agreed to before building or living in this "community". The styles of the house, yard (and it's upkeep), driveways, and even mailboxes were defined to agree with the overall look and feel of the suburbia atmosphere.

So knowing you must do as everyone else, why protest? The goal of living in this restricted environment is to be just like everyone around you. The kids go to the same schools, the families shop at the same retail shops and drive similar cars. Everyone dresses the same and attended the same clubs and religious gatherings. Conformity is good and safe and exclusive in this very expensive housing project.

But what happened to the individuals? This country was built on individuals evaluating the laws and rules and restrictions, while bucking the system and celebrating freedom of choice.

Now I'm not advocating anarchy, but I wonder why everyone must conform, like lemmings, and follow the same mundane decries presented to us by our "superiors" or the marketing media.

Where is the sense of freedom, to paint your house orange or take a walk at 2 in the morning or eat dinner for breakfast?

I had a neighbor who threatened to take me to court because my house did not look like everyone else on the block. He indicated, rather rudely, my house would affect the property values. He even searched the city records for some sort of restriction that I was validating

My response was that "this neighborhood" is so old, that those types of restrictions in building codes that not been established, so if he was looking for definitive rules on how to live life, he should move. He did.

And still my property assessment continued to rise.

So get wild, if you live in one of these communities and paint your mailbox "yellow". Feel free.

Note: If you notice in following this story, those who did paint agreed to paint them back to dull brown.