Once upon a time, in the days of castles and men in tights, there were no prisons or jails. The only written rules stated, All subjects shall submit to the wishes of the king. That covered it. I imagine law school would have been a breeze. The "Criminal," a heinous lout who dared yolk his llama on the sabbath or start a fire without the consent of the Duke of Snottington, was simply placed in a room and told to stay there. No locks. No guards. This was the honor system at its best. Not like the one at your office. Come on, we all know that temp took a Snickers and some Funyons and only dropped a nickel in. Times have changed.

The theory explaining these actions and behaviors is known as Social Contract. Although not a document that is sworn to, notarized, or even written down, a Social Contract is an agreement we, as a society, have with each other concerning courtesy, morality, accountability, harmony and peace. It can be viewed as one all encompassing contract or many individual agreements. No matter how you wish to describe the theory, it has one definition, doing the right thing. The Bible is filled with stories of Social Contracts being observed and broken, I'm told.

Laws are simply Social Contracts that were violated so many times someone stepped in and said, "Enough is enough. We must have written rules and punitive measures to stop my neighbor from mowing his lawn in the nude." That's not to say that every Social Contract becomes a law. In between the two is that sometimes murky, gray area we less and less frequently refer to as our freedom.

I have a brother-in-law, Daniel, who was born and raised in Singapore. Sometime back we were together at a little league baseball game watching my wife's brothers play. After the game we had to cross a grassy field to get to my car. As we were walking, I decided I was going to get no further service from the gum I was chewing. So, I opened my mouth and let it fall to the ground. Daniel smiled and said, "In China a citizen would turn you in and you would be arrested." Taken by surprise, I said, "For eating four hot dogs at a baseball game?" He patiently replied, "No, for spitting your gum on the ground."

Now, I don't know if Daniel's claim was factual. I never took the time to research it further. However, he is Asian and his accent makes him sound really smart. His information made me realize three things. One, I love America. Two, I would not care to spit my gum out in China. Three, I should not have eaten four hot dogs in one inning. I was clearly feeling guilty about it.

Since I seem to be faltering in making my point, I'll pull the trigger and do it now. We shouldn't need laws to make us do the right thing. Conversely, we shouldn't do the right thing only when the law requires it. I should not have spit the gum onto the ground. Someone could have walked in it and tracked it into their car, creating a sticky mess. Or, a raccoon might have eaten it and walked around with minty fresh breath for two hours. I could have unwittingly made him the laughing stock of the entire raccoon community. I don't need that on my shoulders.

I once knew a guy named Scorpion. His real name was Scorpian, but he changed it because he thought the a was effeminate. He was the toughest of the tough. Built like the American Bison and tattooed over ninety percent of his body, he lived by his own rules and took no mess from nobody. I decided to watch Scorpion for a day. Some of you more familiar with law enforcement tactics would call it surveillance. Well, at one point, old Scorp walked into a busy fast food restaurant and what do you think he did? He took his place at the back of the line. This really got me thinking. He stood and quietly waited the five or ten minutes until it was his turn to place his order. Why? There are no laws requiring anyone to stand in a line, waiting. Why didn't Scorpion elbow and foul-mouth his way to the front? Medication? Possibly. Without thinking about it, Scorpion was honoring a Social Contract. An unspoken agreement between himself and the other people in line. His actions said, I know my place and will wait my turn.

I believe it is imperative that we teach our children to ask, WWSD (What would Scorpion do)? No, that's not even close to what I'm saying. Our kids need to see us doing the right thing, consistently. I know we sometimes are hurried, stressed, or just plain impatient. However, our babies are watching everything we are doing. Watching and learning. We are responsible for imprinting them with examples of right and wrong. If they see me spitting gum onto the ground, being rude to someone or failing to take the grocery cart back to the corral, should I expect better from them?