Where's the common sense?

When I was growing up, one of the things my Mom used to say (& sometimes yell, ha ha) "Don't you have any common sense?"  Preceeding that statement was her discovery that I had done something bone-headed, like lie that I hadn't snuck out the night before only to discover I had forgotten to get up early to put the screen back on the window.  That was my signature way to get out after bedtime....I knew lots of teens that did the same.

Unfortunately, sometime in the last 30 years, common sense doesn't seem to be something that parents strive for or pass on to their kids.  In fact, most people seem to have taken all of their common sense and packed it away, put it in the attic, and forgot that it was there.

Just look at the cartoon above.  You would think that most people understand that not everything on the internet is true.  Yet, in the workplace everyday, co-workers have conversations about all kinds of things they read or saw on their computers.  Diets are one example.  At my office the current claim is that apple cider vinegar and garcenia, taken every day, will "melt off the pounds" without making any other changes in exercise or calorie counts ~ it supposedly increases your metabolism.  Well, if weight loss were that easy, wouldn't everyone do it?  Yep.

Mostly I notice people don't have any common sense when dealing with John Q Public.  They rudely push past you to get ahead of you in line.  They cut you off when your driving to work.  They make rude remarks if they believe they've been slighted in some way, even though all you were trying to do was pick out the right ingredient for dinner, they think you're deliberately stopped in the way to prevent them from getting what they need.  

They talk on the phone in public about their colonoscopies, without regard to everyone around them.  Of course now that we have cell phones, no one uses them at home, they talk while at the dentist, the bank, the movies.  You simply can't get away from a wife loudly describing to her husband the fight their child got into over something stupid at school.  

Everyone is in such a hurry.  I see that everyday going to work and going home....a few days ago I witnessed the aftermath of a rear end collision that was most likely the result of tail gating ~ something I experience every day.  Somehow people think that getting really close to your back bumper will make you speed up.  Of course, this presumes the other person will look in thier rear view mirror.  

I don't even want to discuss politics or polititians.  I'm not sure they've ever had any common sense.  Otherwise, why would you even want to be one?  It seems that any "honest" polititian remains so for so short a time as to not even be measurable.  

Cynical much?  Yeah.  I don't like it when my cynical side comes out, but every now and then, you just have to tell it like it is.  A purge, so to speak.  Then move on.......

Love, 365