08 April 2011

Common Sense

I love the term "common sense."  I also like what it means--the idea that some things just make sense on a very simple and common level is very important to me, especially when I start to get overwhelmed by people who seem to think that everything in the world has to be complex and complicated.  "Common" sense is something that can help us to get to the crux of matters in our lives swiftly and simply, and it's important to me to try to find the most common-sensical answers that I can find to problems in my life.

I've known some people who had great common sense, and I've always loved being around them.  They always have seemed to be able to get to the heart of any issues that were facing them or others, for they didn't allow themselves to get bogged down in all the peripheral crap that makes up so much of our lives sometimes.  They don't worry about impressing other people or getting any credit for what they do or say--they just say what they think the situation calls for, and they're usually right on with the way that they read the needs of the moment.

If I had my choice between being stuck in a forest with a person with five Ph.D.'s and a person with a bunch of common sense, guess which person I'd choose?  That's right--it would be the one who most likely could help me to survive in difficult situations, the one who can find quick and practical and relevant solutions to our problems when necessary.

I think the only thing wrong with common sense these days is the fact that there seems to be less and less of it around as time goes on.  There are fewer people who value common sense, fewer people who spend time trying to learn it.  These days, it seems, information is king, and most people spend most of their time learning information--or even trivia, for that matter.  But sometimes it may be better for us to step back from situations that we face and ask ourselves, in all seriousness, just what approach makes the most common sense.  The answer more than likely to such a question will be just the answer we were looking and hoping for.


Everybody gets so much information all day long
that they lose their common sense.             

Gertrude Stein






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