"Common sense is not so common."
-Voltaire
“But
that’s just common sense…” – this is something I've heard several people, in
different parts of my life, say over the past few weeks – almost daily. The phrase has usually punctuated a story in
which someone was acting with supreme dumbassery. My reaction is to usually think about this
quote from Voltaire. He died in 1778, so
obviously this problem has plagued mankind for a lot longer than any of us has
been alive.
Common
sense is like common courtesy or common decency. It’s really our own perception of what we think
other people should know or how they should behave. No
offense to Miss Emily Post, but everyone don’t follow her rules. I know it to be true when a dude damn near
runs me over to get out of an elevator or through a door first. My gut reaction is judgment because I usually
think the cretin’s parents didn't raise him right. I have a son…these aren't hard things to
teach.
The pièce de résistance is when they haven’t
employed these “common” truisms and it has caused some unholy problem for
us. It makes you wish they weren't being
so fucking stupid, that they’d stop and think (for once) before going off
half-cocked. I’m usually a glass-half-full
kind of girl, but for some people I really don’t think that’s possible –
half-cocked is a default setting.
Maybe the
problem isn’t them, it’s us. Our expectations are too high. In my daily
practice, I tell myself this over and over.
It’s an incredible challenge not to lose it. But I’m trying to deal with things as they
are, not as I wish them to be. Even when
things are difficult, I’m just leaning into it and facing the challenges head
on. I’m really trying to do that without complaining; instead, just moving forward and taking care of it.
As I
approach birthday number 39, I find what I want most out of life is to be completely
present for it – all of it. Having no
struggle at all isn’t the human experience and it’s what brought down the first
version of The Matrix – nobody bought a problem free existence (yes, I am
talking about a movie like it is real life - deal with it). I want to always remember that while crossing
paths with fools isn’t my choice, my reaction to the situation always is.
Every.
Single. Time.
