“On the Rules of the Road” is an essay written by the English journalist and author A.G. Gardiner. The story begins with a strong and healthy elderly woman walking down the road carrying her basket.
On the Rule of the Road By A.G Gardiner
Summary of On the Rule of the Road By A.G Gardiner
The essay begins with a strong, healthy elderly woman walking down the street carrying her basket. She seems oblivious to traffic rules. She was walking in the middle of the highway, causing inconvenience to other pedestrians.
Someone asked her to move to the sidewalk, but she ignored them and continued walking in the middle of the highway. The woman replied, “I can walk wherever I want and I don’t need anyone’s permission because we have freedom.” The poet says that if she has the freedom to walk in the middle of the highway, then the driver also has the freedom to drive on the sidewalk.
The poet is trying to convey that unnecessary freedom can lead to the world’s destruction. Everyone will block each other, and no one will be able to go anywhere. If a policeman stops your car to let vehicles in the other lane pass, and you consider it a symbol of oppression, you are wrong.
Don’t consider it an oppression, because it is a form of freedom. Even if you hold a high position, you should never get angry if a policeman stops your car. Because we should respect everyone and their work, no matter who we are. Just imagine, if there were no policeman on the highway, there would be a traffic jam, which could waste a lot of your time.
We ourselves have made an agreement with our government that they can exercise some control over our freedom so that we can truly enjoy it. Always remember, “Freedom is not just a personal matter, but a social agreement.”
But I have the freedom to walk on the highway in a nightgown, so who is going to stop me? And you have every right to laugh at me. I also have the freedom to ignore you. I have the freedom to dye my hair blonde. I have the freedom to wear slippers under my overcoat, and I can go to sleep at 2 a.m. and wake up at 2 p.m.
I don’t need anyone’s permission to do any of these things. Whether I like Ella Wheeler Wilcox or Wordsworth, this is my freedom. The whole world is our kingdom, and we are its kings. We can live in it as we please.
Knowing all this, why don’t we do it? Because we know that our freedom is linked to the freedom of others. I like to play the drum, but that doesn’t mean I should start playing it at midnight and disturb others’ sleep. We must remember that we exist only because of others.
Here the poet gives an example. Once, he was traveling on a train. Before boarding, he bought a blue book to read. A man was sitting in the train compartment, laughing hysterically while talking to his friends, making it difficult for the poet to read.
His voice was so loud that he couldn’t read his book. The poet then stopped reading and looked out the window. Even though he had stopped reading, the man’s voice still echoed in his ears.
He didn’t realize that by talking to his friends, he was disturbing the peace of the others in the compartment. Although he was fluent in speech, he wasn’t socially inclined. He lacked the social understanding of how to behave among people.
We should observe people who follow traffic rules because this can help us learn about their nature and whether they are civilized or not. I am sure that when my friend sitting in the train compartment reads this article, he will not make such a mistake again.