When you know something and know it so well, you can’t quite believe other people don’t know it. Sometimes this is ‘learned’ knowledge–a new topic you just took a course in, or a book you just read. And sometimes it's something you ‘filed away from years ago’. Other times, it’s just something you figured out was ‘common sense’. The problem with common sense, though, is everyone’s file contains different entries.
What you have filed away under 'common sense' may well have a whole stack of information that’s entirely different to me.
There is the ‘common' common sense stuff–like don’t put your hand in fire (it’s hot) or don’t leap from tall buildings (you’ll fall and hurt yourself)–these and a whole list more I would like to think that everyone knows (although I am always alarmed when reading the ‘Darwin Awards’ that apparently they have failed to reach everyone’s internal filing cabinet!).
Then there is the ‘educated’ common sense–the mental arithmetic, the social skills, the understanding of right from wrong (again, I know with the latter not everyone has the same ideas on this but there is at least law to back it up).
Next up is ‘your’ common sense. This is made up from all the learning, experiences, ideas and information that’s come your way and you’ve filed. Some of it gets mixed up with your thinking along the way and is entirely yours (although you may not realise it). THIS is where your Thing is. Somewhere in the file (and it may even be the entire file) of ‘your’ common sense is your Thing. The way you see and filter the world and think "Well, that’s just common sense, isn’t it?" that you think is all or part of your Thing.
The thing about your Thing being filed under common sense is, of course, that you have filed it under 'common sense'. You’ve made the assumption that everyone else thinks like this too. You may not recognise or realise that this is your special file of common sense, made up from your experiences and the blend of ideas and information you’ve collated. And it’s here all the good stuff is.
The trick in all this, of course, is seeing them, working out which ones they are and taking the super-valuable ‘only you see this, in this way’ files OUT of the common sense folder and putting the in a new folder labelling them ‘VERY IMPORTANT THING’ and doing something with them. That is of course a whole other Thing...
Want to talk more about this?
You are BRILLIANT, Lucy! This blog post seems so simple – so full of ‘common sense’ ;-) Somehow, your words expressed as they are above, have made some things come together for me ;-)) Thank you so much. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for your emails, videos, etc. over the coming weeks. Yours in Gratitude, Light & Love, Peace & Joy wendyht