"To apply a rule..."

“Pedantry and mastery are opposite attitudes toward rules. To apply a rule to the letter, rigidly, unquestioningly, in cases where it fits and in cases where it does not fit, is pedantry ... To apply a rule with natural ease, with judgment, noticing the cases where it fits, and without ever letting the words of the rule obscure the purpose of the action or the opportunities of the situation, is mastery. -George Polya, mathematician (13 Dec 1887-1985)

This quote, from a recent A.Word.a.Day post, really hit me when I read it, and still rattles around in my head.

If a mathematician can say this, perhaps judges and others whose job it is to interpret and enforce the law, could, too. It could be a dangerous proposition…who knows what it might unleash? On the other hand, do we not get frustrated when something done “by the book” counters our deeper sense of what is right or just?

It made me think of Jesus’s attitude toward law and tradition and “the way things have always been,” which turned out to be fatally dangerous for him.

What do you think of Polya’s observation?