I opened the pantry door the other day and it struck me how similar refereeing and the law book is to the sight that greeted me.
Context – I live in a house with a wife, a cat and now two teenagers. (The latter of which turned 13 this week(!!)) And thus, we eat a lot of cereal.
We all like different things. There’s a choice for every palette. Some days* I like to mix up to four or five things for the perfect bowl. Sometimes, I only need one.
And that’s like the law book and refereeing.
We don’t need to use them all at any given time. Sometimes we want to. Sometimes we need to. Sometimes we don’t.
We need to know what’s there and we need to make a decision about what’s relevant or appropriate to deploy depending on the circumstances in front of us.
The evening supper bowl is a very different kettle of fish to the morning bowl of cereal.
Sometimes other users don’t respect the cereal cupboard. They don’t refill when empty, they leave the lids open. And then someone has to deal with it. We can either force users to fix it themselves or we can deal with it for them. We can prevent problems with the cereal cupboard by ensuing a new supply is ready before it’s needed.
OK, I’m stretching the analogy a little now… But you get the gist. The cheerios are on you!
* Most days
