Common Sense Isn’t

What is the best way to ring in a New Year? Did you watch the ball drop at midnight counting down the last ten seconds of the old year to ring in the new, Kiss your spouse or partner, and sing "Auld Lang Syne," Now your next step is to make a list of resolutions, tune in or go to The Tournament of Roses Parade depending on where you are, eat some turnip greens and black-eyed peas, and so on and on…Traditions are a blessing and we always follow them to the letter, because that is what we have learned, but what are you going to do tomorrow?

Tomorrow you will sit back and try your best to get over that hangover if you chose to indulge a bit too much, and you will rub your stomach because like everyone else, me included you ate way too many greens and black-eyed peas, and maybe some of that dessert too, the resolutions are already out the window because New Years Day is over, and you are getting back into the swing of things as they were before the holidays.

I was talking to my Mom a while back and we came to the conclusion that common sense isn’t common at all, for example the district she works for is laying off an un common number of employees in the school system, all the way from custodians to teachers, but at the same time the district is building something like six new schools, now this didn’t make sense to me, so my statement was “Why don’t they hold off on building for now and hold on to the employees?” my common sense tells me that the money should be used to save jobs, but this money is budgeted for construction and cannot be used for anything else, so six new facilities will be built, and there will be a lack of employees to staff them because there is not enough money to pay them, makes sense to me.

This is like a family who has a savings account set aside as a vacation fund, all the money going into this account is to be used for a road trip only, in the meantime both Mom and Dad lose their jobs and now they can’t pay the bills or buy food, sitting there with no power or groceries they have an obligation to go on vacation because they have the money set aside for this purpose, starving to death they pack their bags for a trip rather than use these funds to pay the bills, because this is how it is supposed to be.

Common Sense tells me that I don’t need to be on a ladder, but those Christmas lights are not coming down by themselves, common sense tells me that the next step down on the ladder is where my foot is supposed to go, and common sense tells me that if I don’t watch my feet there is no telling where they will go, I trusted that foot to go where it was supposed to without watching it, wonder why I am laying on the ground.

How about for the New Year we try to use our common sense when dealing with life, open our eyes and watch where we are stepping because if we don’t we will be flat on our faces, use your money where you need it because there are a lot out there who wish that they had done so when they had the chance, we still have a lot of people out of work and going hungry, there are a lot who need a helping hand so if you have anything extra reach out and help someone, Have a Happy New Year and remember to use your common sense because for most people Common Sense Isn’t, is it?