50 Shades of Brown

When I was growing up, such a huge emphasis was placed on Common Sense. Since I grew up with parents who exhibited common sense for the most part, I understand what that means.  Aside from being a bit older, I do try to make decisions based on what I learned and observed from them.  But what exactly is common sense?

Dictionary or Google definitions go something like this:  good sense and sound judgment in practical matters.  Or sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts.  Those are all good and fine definitions, but I would like to propose a whole different approach to common sense, mainly because I firmly believe that common sense is dead. 

I propose the term “Uncommon Sense”.   Beautiful. There. I said it, end of article.   Not so fast writer.  What do I mean? Uncommon Sense is making sound and wise decisions based on the facts with a full knowledge of what the outcome or consequences will be.  You see, we live in a very independent time where everyone is encouraged to make their own decisions to fit themselves.  Absolutely NOTHING is said about what the long-term consequences of those decisions might be.  People truly do things because “it feels good to them”, without any thought of how it could affect others or even long term affect themselves.

If you still aren’t following me, let’s talk through some very common examples.  Car buying.  You are driving a beater.  It’s fairly reliable, but 20 years old, definitely worn, and you feel you deserve a new car that you will look good in.  You go to a dealer who is more than happy to set you up in a new or newer car, and get you set up with payments.  Being so excited by your new car you agree to the payments thinking to yourself, these will be a little inconvenient, but I’ll manage.  And for a couple of months, you do.  But you begin to start noticing then that you have a lot of month left at the end of the money.  Why did this happen? Probably because you forgot that your 20-year-old beater was paid off.  All you were paying for was the routine maintenance on it. The newer car (which the dealer did not share with you) requires full synthetic oil changes every 5000 miles.  That starts at about 100 dollars.  The larger the motor, the more expensive it is.  And European Cars require slightly more expensive oil. 

Perhaps relationships will help explain it to you.  You are single and enjoying life.  But something seems missing.  That’s right, you want to have that special someone who thinks the world starts and stops on a word from you. You try dating sites, online connections, people at work, and you finally find someone.  They think you are pretty amazing.  The more you spend time with them, the better they make you feel.  Sounds perfect, right?  Not so fast.  There is some differences between you two that occasionally cause some friction.  Those can be a variety of things:  leisure activities, living arrangements, religion, politics, bedroom activities, spending, etc…  But this person makes you feel really good, I’ll just ignore these and they’ll go away.  Time goes by, you are able to ignore your differences for the most part, you two are madly in love and get married.  Everything is sunshine and roses for a while, but then things get somewhat stressful (happens to every marriage) and those differences that you ignored are now MAJOR irritations and are coming between you and the happiness that you expected in marriage.  By not addressing those differences while you were just dating, and just expecting them to go away, you have set yourself and your partner up for failure.

Student loans are a classic example of not thinking through the consequences.  Now don’t get me wrong, but student loans do a lot of good, when used correctly.  Students who have a dream, that requires a college degree, and a solid career, who use student loans to supplement jobs and savings while going to school, may need them to help achieve that.  But so much emphasis has been placed on getting a college degree with kids in school these days, that not much emphasis has been placed on how to get there and what the long-term consequences will be. The news is filled with stories of college graduates who have no jobs and $100,000+ in loans to repay.  I won’t get into the politics of WHO should repay (my personal belief is irresponsible institutions who loaned it in the first place).  But not a lot of thought went into this.  Did that student look at what their degree was going to get them?  Was the job they wanted going to be available? Would it LEGITIMATELY manage to help repay the loan?  Schools from Elementary to University need to also encourage people to think about vocational and trade schools as well. I’m not sorry to say, not everyone should get a college degree.  

As a final example, I’d like to talk about wildlife photography.  I jokingly refer to this as photographic natural selection.  We live in the age of selfies.  I will admit, I love taking selfies to remember somewhere I enjoyed.  I’m not talking about that though. I’m talking about people who get WAY TO CLOSE to wild animals, trying to get the ultimate selfie in order to be crowned King or Queen selfie taker.  GET A CLUE.  Why do people even blink an eye when one of these (ahem) people get gored, run over, bitten, or mauled by a majestic creature that just wanted it’s own space and a chance to munch some grass.  I am not here to tell anyone not to take a selfie. That’s on you.  I am here to tell you THINK first.  What would the consequences of approaching a several ton wild animal with pointy things on it be?  They are not mind readers.  They act out of instinct.  Anything that is not like them that approaches them, is a threat. Period. Not to be mean here, but people who do this probably deserve what Mother Nature dishes back.  Yeah, I said it. Natural Selection at its best.

Perhaps it is time to go back to teaching our youth common sense.  But there is no going back is there?  How about this.  Going forward, let’s pledge to teach the new generations Uncommon Sense.