Uncommon Sense

Image credit: Sufi Nawaz

Whenever I hear about common sense, I like to joke that credit cards are replacing common cents. Har, har. But seriously, I don't believe in common sense anymore for two reasons: one of my roommates, and, of course, preschoolers (since I mention them in many of my posts).

First, my roommate. He defies logic. To me, it's common sense to wash your dishes in a reasonable time frame. By reasonable time frame, the same day as you use dishes would be ideal, but life gets in the way, so I think three or fours days is a reasonable time period. Leaving dishes out for weeks on end is something I would deem unreasonable, especially since we have a dishwasher. To me, it's common sense to not turn the living room into a hydroponics garden. (As a side note, he's growing Venus flytraps to eat the bugs that are possibly spawning because of the dirty dishes he leaves out. Oh, I love irony.) To me, it's common sense to listen to music at a moderate volume and not blasting out of the speakers so the whole apartment can hear it, whether they want to or not (most cases, not).

The hydroponics garden doesn't bother me, but the derelict dirty dishes and loud music both do. I haven't approached him about either issue, but I know that the loud music annoys at least one of my roommates. One night, a few months ago, a couple guys representing the elder's quorum in our ward visited us and asked us if we had any problems with each other. My other roommate told him that the loud music bugged him. The offending roommate just laughed it off and said that he was used to it because he'd grown up around loud music.

I didn't think much about it at the time, but over the past couple of months, I realize it's true that so many things I think of as common sense are simply things I've been taught. To me, it's common sense to not play music too loud because growing up in my family, that's what we did. To my roommate, he grew up with loud music so playing it loud is common sense to him.

That reminds me of my preschoolers. Sometimes it seems easy to get frustrated with them because they do things that go against my common sense, but honestly, they're pretty new to life on Earth, and they don't know a whole lot of things yet. They don't know that they should put their coat on before their backpack. They don't know that they shouldn't grab toys out of others' hands. They don't know that they shouldn't eat Play-Doh. It's my job to teach them, and to tell them over and over and over again, as many times as it takes, until they understand and can fit into our society.

So the next time someone does something stupid or with an apparent lack of common sense, give them the benefit of the doubt. Try to see things from their perspective. Have an open discussion with them about the problem. Tell yourself that maybe they don't know any better. And if they don't know any better, teach them.