Dictionary definition of common sense is:

noun 1. sound practical judgment that is independent of specialized knowledge,training, or the like; normal native intelligence.

*Insert echoing guffaw here*

The first three words of that description fit. All succeeding words couldn’t be further from apt.

Case in point – recently, I listed my house for sale. On a Saturday late afternoon as I had been busying myself in my bedroom, I caught sight of three people trekking across my lawn. No one I knew. My property is just shy of an acre and a half of land and sits on a lake. They were strolling through as though they’d found a beautiful public park.

My home being my sanctuary, quite literally and metaphorically, I obviously engaged no patience. I knew exactly what they were after – they’d seen the ‘for sale’ sign and took it upon themselves to view the property. All of it – that’s a significant amount of space to cover and they were out to investigate every inch.

I expected there would be troglodytes traipsing around the minute I listed the land…that didn’t mean that I just accepted such oblivious and idiotic behavior.

Who DOES this shit? What if I were to just wander through your property for no other reason than I wanted to see what it looked like? I would hope that you would be just as incensed. What if all of us did – felt no restraint to keep us from overcrowding other people’s personal space and property? It happens ALL too frequently and senselessly.

It’s not right, folks. Live by these guidelines and you’ll live well: if it isn’t yours, don’t touch it. If the conversation doesn’t include or pertain to you, keep your mouth shut. Trust me, people – this is NOT rocket science; it’s basic right from wrong in consideration of others who may not deem your actions justifiable.

There is nothing common about sense – not a damned thing that is ‘native’ about it as the definition would lead us to believe, and normal is only relative until you know more about the subject matter.

Expanded minds and appreciation of others existing in the world around us come from experiencing as much of all of it as possible; observations of different environments and different cultures, of reading endless genres of books and hearing vasts beats of music.

Next time you’re in your favorite restaurant, be bold and order a new dish. Better yet, patronize a new restaurant!

Experience makes us what and who we are – there are people I’ve run across who have never left the state, let alone their own home town in which their entire family resides…and has for centuries.

Small ignorant views of such an expansive universe only lead to limited understanding of everything in it…

…oh…wait. I have to go chase another one off of my deck.