Photo by Sebastian Voortman
They say ‘you can’t teach common sense’. Well, they should stop calling it common sense. Some things have to be thought. If you don't know a thing, then it’s kinda cruel to villainies someone for something they truly don’t know. Going overseas, experiencing different cultures opened me up to this more so than traveling from state to state. Not that this observation wasn’t something already on my radar.
It’s hard to adequately describe the weight that feels lifted from your state of being while visiting another country. When I hear my fellow countryman making comments like “If you don’t like it you can leave,” it makes me wonder why people thought ‘I’ was so arrogant growing up. Truth is, there were a lot of things I simply did not know growing up; and it pains me today knowing how presumptuous I once was.
I was once bought and sold on the idea “if you work hard, you earn what you get.” There was a strong belief in me that we were all of the same accord; that what was taught in one household was the same in another. We were all privileged to the same opportunities and rights and chances—equally.
Already you can see the flaw in this extremely young form of logic. That didn’t change until the day I saw over 100,000 people let go from employment by no fault of their own. Actually, it began much sooner than that, but what did I really know at the time. There laid my arrogance, because I knew I was willing to try hard at anything, but not for the reasons people bestowed on me.
When I traveled overseas all that went away; it was like people were willing to except me on the bases of nothing more than my saying hello or good morning. No one knew my past, nothing negative was assumed it seemed, and it was like I stood on my own merits rather than someone’s harsh skepticism or criticism (whatever ism's).
That’s the posture we assume in our country. We just assume everyone knows the same things; when we don’t even take responsibility for those things that are throwbacks from another era or ‘way’ of being. Each household does not have the same upbringing or privileges or rights. I didn’t have to “hustle” growing up; all I knew was the love.
There were far more privileged households than mine that apparently didn’t receive the same love. Yes, they inherited different knowledge, things I was not privileged too, and it took heart in later years, but it is the crux of a deeper rooted problem that I believe we can overcome, if we weren’t so afraid of each other.
What happened to community? You know once upon a time, if something happened in a community, everyone knew about it. That became common knowledge, and in turn was rightfully common sense. If we don’t talk to each other, pass on what we know, the disparity between what we assume and what is real shall continue to deepen, turning the things we vote upon and argue for into nothing more than vague "presumptions" that are close enough in nature that we believe ourselves rallying for the same things and therefore of the same mind. But truth is we are not.
Sometimes I don’t agree with the way the context (the way people say things) of something is applied, I mean yes if a stove is hot then I should have “common sense” not to place my hand anywhere near that “hot” stove; assuming I know it’s hot. But let’s be honest, look how loosely the phrase common sense is applied to everything we do.
Common sense is not a hustle, it cannot assume that everyone is out to get the better of someone or is of the same mind or same thing. It is in all of us to want better for ourselves, yet a great leap to expect it in others. It’s time we changed that.