Not all rules deserve to be followed, and not all the most important ones are written down: Marie Klimis

By Sandy Glanfield

Listening to Marie Klimis on the Let’s Reboot the Future podcast left me thinking about the rules that sit around us, and beneath us, shaping how we move through the world.

As we grow up, we learn clear rules from parents, schools, clubs and communities. But there are other rules too. Unspoken ones. Social and generational mores that take much longer to sense, understand and question. They are shaped by culture, history and power, and often we absorb them without realising we have a choice.

Marie spoke about learning early on that some rules matter more than others. That loyalty, kindness and not unnecessarily hurting someone sit at the heart of how we should live, even if following them means breaking a rule. These are not easy lessons. But once they land, they can anchor us deeply into a way of being.

It made me think about courage, something we often talk about through the lens of the Golden Rule. Courage is sometimes required to act against the norms around us, especially when those norms harm people or the planet. Societal rules can support some while excluding others. When that happens, we need to listen more closely to what we feel and know is right, even when it is uncomfortable.

This feels harder than ever in the world we live in now. There is so much noise. We navigate diversity, multiple belief systems, global perspectives and the constant chatter of social media. We cancel quickly, close conversations down, and rush to certainty. Yet so often our bodies and our instincts already know when something is not right, even if we do not yet have the language or the answer.

Marie shared a moment from her own life where she followed the rules as she understood them, only to later realise that doing the right thing would have meant protecting someone from harm instead. That learning, that the deeper rule is to not harm others or the planet, feels both simple and profoundly demanding.

I also keep returning to the role of systems in all of this. When governments and institutions tell us that economic growth matters more than environmental care, or that discrimination is acceptable in the name of security, we are being asked to override what we know at heart to be true. When systems normalise harm, upholding them comes at the cost of our humanity.

Marie’s reflections are a reminder that we need time, space and community to think these things through. To stay open. To keep sensing into what feels right. To practice treating others, and the world around us, with the same care and dignity we would hope for ourselves.