Common Sense

The kettle is whistling like a steam train so you shut off the stove, put on an oven mitt before you pick up the handle. That’s common sense, right? What exactly is common sense? Is it something we should know? Something we ought to know? Or something we must know? I’m not sure. I’m not the most rational person on earth and don’t always make the most logical choices. But I think I have good enough common sense to make intelligent judgment, at least I hope so.

Roughly a year ago I got stuck in a winter storm and was tied up in traffic for nearly 6 hours. I actually left work about 45 minutes early, knowing that a storm was heading our way. It was obvious that a lot of people had the same mindset as I did. The usually light-traffic freeway at 2 pm, was saturated with cars. I thought the early departure for home would allow me a jump start on traffic, boy, was I wrong!

The freeway which I usually take to get home is visible from my office building. I had checked the traffic flow before heading out to the freeway, the traffic flow was slow but steady. I had the choice to drive on surface streets but the thought of potentially stopping at every traffic light had me opting the freeway. I had taken the surface streets once during a light winter storm. It was a 2 hour ordeal that I wouldn’t want to repeat.

As I emerged and slowly rolled in with the traffic, it eventually came to a complete stop. The falling rain had turned into an ice storm, as the temperature tumbled. The road condition had gone from bad to worse, much worse. You would think people with good common sense would slow down even more. Well, it was quite the opposite. I sat in my idling car for the next 4 hour before the traffic moved again. The 20 mile drive would take me an additional 2 hours to complete. I kept toll to how many cars I saw that ended up in the ditch or crashed alone the road side, the count: 32, most of them trucks, SUVs and mini vans.

By the time I got home it was well past 8 pm, over 6 hours on the road. Needless to say, I was totally exhausted. My wife fared a lot better than I did. She made it home in a few hours. Later that evening I learned from the news that over 140 accidents had been reported in one country alone. It was a hellish day for everyone. I followed what I thought was a better choice but it earned me 6 hours in the traffic. Common sense tells us to slow down when the driving condition is less than ideal. Yet, how often do we see people weave in and out of traffic when they really should slow down and be more alert?

I have no doubt that the next winter storm will again produce traffic jams and accidents. I just hope that more people will use good common sense this time.

original post date: December 11, 2009