Uncommon Sense

The funny thing about common sense is that it's really not so common at all.

My mother once told me that when her brother (my uncle) moved out of home, he couldn't figure out why, even after putting his clothes through the washing machine they still didn't appear to be clean or smell very good. Once they ran through the process together- it turns out he wasn't using washing detergent! It's not that he wasn't aware of it's existence- it just hadn't occurred to him to USE it.

It seems to have litte or no connection to intelligence either.

My brother, who holds several university degrees in fields such as engineering, and could thus be assumed to be an intelligent person, but I cannot count the number of times that common sense has been demonstrably absent in his decisions and acts.

One of my pet hates is drivers, who seem to lack almost any sense, let alone common sense. On Thursday, driving home from work I saw not one, but two multiple vehicle accidents- the first with 4 cars all concertinaed together, the second with 3 cars. The simple rain + not driving so close to the car in front/ slowing down did not seem to occur to at least 5 drivers (the front 2, I'll let you off this time, but with the knowledge that you could have changed lanes suddenly and cut someone off, causing the accident).

I, on most occassions, have an abundance of common sense- to the point where I have oft been called a wet blanket for applying logic to what had been supposedly "fun" suggestions. I do credit it for living as long as I have though and not getting in to a hell of a lot more trouble! My common-sense blind spot is probably men, yet the one time I tried to apply it and date someone "more suited to me" I found myself in a passion-less flop of a relationship! Sometimes, perhaps, logic does not apply.