[photo credit: click here]
Put your hand up if you have uttered the phrase, “Its common sense.”
Well I have some news for you (you can put your hands down now). It’s all relative. What is common sense to you or me may not be common sense to someone else.
Why? Because there are a variety of factors that can impact our ability to exercise our common sense chromosome. Things such as education, gender, and age all play a part. And lets not forget there are other stronger forces at work as well.
Take alcohol for instance. It has a way to wreck havoc with it. Actually, that’s not true. Alcohol has a way to obliterate it from our existence altogether.
This would certainly explain why, back in university, I cut myself out of the jeans I was wearing with a steak knife because I could not get them off. It wasn’t until I awoke the next morning, and peeked beneath the sheets that I discovered why my jeans weren’t coming off. I was fairly certain the ski boots I was still wearing may have been blocking their exit.
General bouts of stupidity definitely can’t be overlooked either.
While traveling in Colombia back in the early 1990’s, I gave a police officer all the money I was carrying at the time. I had to. He told me he had to check to see if it was registered.
It all seemed pretty logical at the time I thought. It wasn’t until he vanished into a crowded square that I realized he wasn’t a police officer, I was now penniless and my common sense had abandoned me like a rat on a sinking ship.
Moments of panic or fear are other powerful forces that can help people bypass the common sense chromosome altogether.
Back when I was in grade 8, a friend I was with accidentally set himself on fire (true story). I’m not sure you have ever tried to catch someone who is on fire, but let me tell you, they are very elusive and shifty (not to mention really hot).
It’s like trying to catch a chicken, only in this case you need to imagine a chicken that hasn’t set itself on fire and one that possesses an IQ that is superior to my now flaming friend.
My brother and I and another guy, eventually gang tackled our fire engulfed amigo and beat him like a filthy rug until the flames on his now bell-bottomless jeans were neutralized.
Of course, by this time a large crowd had gathered, mainly because, not only had my friend set himself on fire, but his garage was now a flaming inferno and the flames were doing their best dance to lure the adjoining family home to the party.
While we waited for the fire department to arrive, one of the neighbours rushed home to get her burn-ware, seeing that our friend’s leg possessed a pinkish hue of an uncooked pork chop. She returned and expertly began lathering him up with an ointment that was sure to heal the burn.
The ointment in question? Toothpaste. More specifically, minty white Crest. Yup, apparently this woman read somewhere that toothpaste was great to put on a burn.
Now I was no doctor, but even at 13, I was fairly certain this was a bad idea. It was my experience that toothpaste wasn’t even effective doing it’s primary job, which was fighting cavities. It had failed me miserably. Whenever I paid my dentist a visit he was exposed to more gaping cavities than a drug enforcement officer at Miami International Airport.
But while the toothpaste certainly didn’t do his burn any favours, I must admit, he did smell good. I imagine it was kind of like what roasted marshmallows would smell like if the gooey center was toothpaste…mmmm!
Order was finally restored when the fire crew and paramedics showed up. I can still remember the look of disgust and annoyance the ambulance attendant gave to the woman who proudly pointed out that it was she who was responsible for the dental hygiene travesty we were now all unknowingly accomplices to.
You know the look. It’s the same one you give your dog just after he has licked your face and you discover he has been feasting on the chocolate nuggets he has recently uncovered in the kitty litter.
Looking back, this woman certainly meant well, but the hysteria of the moment obviously clouded her judgment. She truly thought frosting his leg like a birthday cake (ps… please note, I am not advocating that anyone use toothpaste as a substitute for icing) was truly the best solution.
So the next time somebody does something that appears to be lacking in common sense, show a little compassion and understanding. There were probably extenuating circumstances that caused them to boycott their common sense gene.
The exception of course, is when you give someone your money to see if it is registered. Now that is just stupid.
To an idea that is really worth quitting,
Dean
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