Sometimes I wonder if I am some sort of genius. Before I explain, let me first say something. I am in no way vain. I do not believe that I am beautiful, I do not “love“ myself, and in no way do I have a large ego. In fact, most people would say that I have a very low self esteem. I have always thought that I was on the smarter side, but recently I have come to the conclusion that maybe there are no sides. You are either there, or you are not. And apparently, most are not.
Now, I'm not referring to peoples IQ. There are plenty of geniuses in this world with IQ's topping the charts. They can build engines, take trips to the moon, even clone sheep. I am not talking about that sort of genius. I am not talking about that kind of smart. What I am talking about is common sense.
My mother was just a mom. My father never graduated high school. But somehow, even though the odds were against me, I ended up on the high end of the common sense.
For some reason, I always thought that everyone else had been given the same.
And apparently, I was wrong.
I am not talking about hard, complicated matters. I am talking about every day things. I literally can not go to the grocery store (less than 7 miles from here) and back without wanting to say something to no less than five people. I have flashes of Jeff Foxworthy holding up note cards with “ Here's Your Sign “ printed on them. I even have images of my ten year old answering me with his famous phrase- “ Dah ”. In fact, last year, Saturn even launched a new television ad/ commercial explaining the phrase. Apparently, they were betting on the fact that other people feel the same way as I do. I wonder how many cars they sold.
I wonder what is happening in this world. Are we really getting smarter, or is learning more making us stupider?
I am guessing that people don't realize that all aspects of life really boil down to common sense. It is possible to take the most confusing situations and boil them down to easy, common sense, basic solutions. It doesn't matter whether you are dealing with home issues, work issues, family, friends, holidays……The list could go on forever. COMMON SENSE will tell you what to do. It will not only fix problems, it will find solutions. It will answer any question you might have. No, COMMON SENSE will not answer any questions on JEOPORDY, but it will tell you what to do, how to do it, and what will happen when it is done. And, since 90 percent of Americans are in the working class, let us begin with an area we all must face. Business.
Businesses bet on no common sense on a regular basis. Anyone who is selling anything always wants their customers to believe that they are getting a deal. The weekly Sunday papers are filled with any number of sale ads for the week. They are “ HOT BUYS ,“ but only for a limited time. Never owning a business, let me tell you a few things my COMON SENSE tells me. All businesses are in it for the money. I don't care what you are selling, whether it is real estate or coffee. You did not, do not, and will not work your life away for nothing. Maybe next to nothing, but not nothing. The whole point of the HOT BUYS are to get people to spend more money on something with a bigger profit margin. For example… The other day my husband stopped at the grocery to pick up the 99 cent toilet paper that was on sale. He ended up getting cinnamon rolls and chicken from the deli. He saved 25 cents on the toilet paper, but spent ten dollars on the chicken and rolls. And, in the off chance that he actually DID just buy the toilet paper, they wouldn't be out anything. They probably get the toilet paper for 49 cents to begin with. So, instead of making 75 cents, they agree for a short time only to make 50, betting on the fact that people lack that little thing called common sense. And, my COMMON SENSE is telling me that their bet pays off.
COMMON SENSE is often referred to as a “NO BRAINER.” So, then I wonder how we learn it. Is it bread into us? Is it something that is taught? Do we learn it from life, from experiences?
My guess is that if we could figure that out, there would be more people out there with it. But, then there would be a lot less people to laugh at, or bitch about. People would smile more, be frustrated less.
I guess COMMON SENSE could be just making things simple. It's like the ten commandments. A short amount of leeway. Certain things that are more important to you individually. Boil it down to the basics. After all, COMMON SENSE tells me that before we went and make everything so complicated, we were doing just fine.
So, next time you start thinking that maybe you are not as smart as the next guy, remember, you could be smarter. You might be making things simple. And maybe, you might just have a little more COMMON SENSE.
