Anything But Common

Ever wonder what happened to Common Sense? How about Common Courtesy? Look around you and you'll see that both are anything but common. They've become so rare they have made the Endangered Species list. So rare, they could be considered a super-power. "Excuse me, I must tend to an urgent need. My Common-Sense is tingling."
Let's look at Common-Sense and a few examples thereof.
Common-Sense and Money: Don't spend more than you make. Yet people continue to max out their Credit Cards and wind up in consumer debt. I ask you, how much interest have you paid on that lunch you charged seven months ago?
Common-Sense and Health: Don't smoke cigarettes. Yet, each and every day literally hundreds of thousands of people light up 10 to 20 times a day. When emphysema sets in they say "How did this happen to me?"
Common-Sense and your Job: Don't take your job for granted. Yet each one of us has worked with the employee who shows up late every day, puts in a half-assed effort and whines about the fact that their employer doesn't pay them what their worth. When they finally get fired they have the gall to be shocked at their fate. Side note: They are now being paid what they are worth.
Common Courtesy? This has become an archeological excursion. It quite literally could be completely lost in this generation. Need an example? Here's one; Customer Service.
Don't you just love the great customer service represented by any fast food restaurant? I would settle on a little eye contact and a "Hello." Oh, sorry I didn't mean to interrupt you as you were standing there holding the counter in place.
How about holding doors for people? Ever held the door for someone only to have them walk by you as though you were in their way?
And don't get me going on Cell Phones in public. A thought: Why waste your time waiting in line at the Bank, only to approach the teller and make them wait for you to hang up? For the love of God and humanity, you are not that important. You are a rude, self-absorbed idiot.
Common-Sense and Common Courtesy need a resurrection big time. With so much emphasis on Higher Learning and College Education, it would do us well to step back and take responsibility for our every day behaviors and responsibilities. To ourselves as well as to our fellow Human Beings. We all have to share this planet but the more we lose touch with the Common, the more we lose touch with ourselves. This delusional, self imposed, self importance is eroding our basic ability to just use our heads and be nice.
If you read this and find yourself agreeing with me, please, before you get all smug and say "Yeah! Preach it Tommy!" Get up and look in the mirror. When was the last time you applied some Common-Sense? Or are you guilty of Paralysis By Analysis? Too much thought leads to wasting time and creating excuses. Use your head, follow your gut, make a decision. And then make the decision right.
When was the last time you used some Common Courtesy? When you went for your third coffee break did you ask your co-workers if anyone else needed a refill? How about the customer that needed you while you were on your Lunch Break? Were you nice enough to just take 5 minutes to help them or did you tell them to call back in an hour?
As always, I am not teaching Brain Surgery or Calculus. This is not hard. This stuff works.
Simplify, be nice and maybe, just maybe we could find ourselves all standing on Common Ground.
Tommy