Common sense

Themneivah Sitlhou *

Humans have five basic senses: Touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste. These help us understand what is happening around us and help us perceive them.

Common sense is the additional sense of the other five senses in human body. Also, it is an internal sense formerly believed to be the sense by which information from the other five senses is understood and interpreted.

We called it common sense as it is used by every age group including children. It is an important gift of nature given to us. Without it, the other senses cannot be properly interpreted. It co-ordinates with the other five senses to bring good decision in our life.

Human life is communicating on daily basis. The world is a global village and we are connected to one another and everything is relative. One step away from the house, we can study the nature of our society and the people living in it. We are related to one another in one form or the other. Our actions revolve around our common sense.

With this, human beings have self consciousness and are able to reflect in every decision we take. Common sense and it's application is important in our daily life but we fail to notice its importance. Lately we can notice that this culture is ebbed away as time passes. It needs social cognition now in order to put them back in the rightful place.

We've already discussed what common sense is and it's relevance in our life. Let's proceed with our discussions and discuss it's importance now. Why is it important? We can bring out many important points. But here, I would like to go with two important points as a whole.

Firstly, common sense is important for making good decisions. A senseful person is essentially far sighted and very cautious in his choice. Every decision with two or more choices need deliberate thinking, and our instinct helps us make good choices. We all make a choice but in the end our choices make us.

Most of the time we face obstacles on our half way for our reckless actions. We are not aware of it. Our sense taught us not to repeat the same mistakes and learn from our mistakes.

Secondly, Common sense is important for making good relationship with others .Good relationship is very important because one cannot survive alone in this society. We need each other to support, to mingle, and to love and be loved . A cautious person has a stable relationship with everyone. However, a person who who fails to maintain good relation with others is building a barrier to his den.

We are not complete with ourselves so we marry and build a family. A happy person is not someone who is necessarily wealthy but someone who finds comfort in his family and society. A person may be rich but is just an empty vessel if he doesn't have good relationship with others.

As a saying goes 'Character lost everything lost', we should heedfully mind our behaviours and manners when we are with others. Our common sense help us mind our behaviours.

We pay due respect to the outstanding ones in society including wealthy people and that of reputed personalities due to the important positions they hold in the society. A charismatic person who is just an ordinary man may also earn a huge respect for his deeds. I took two different statuses to draw a conclusion that common sense is relevant in all sections of the society.

Likewise, sometimes a person is blinded with arrogance, carelessness and foolishness enough to lose his senses. No matter what a person is, if he lacks common sense he is no different from that of a lunatic. Fore that reason common sense is all the more important . Looking from family to civil society, good character is always required.

Common sense itself is a discipline. It teaches us to behave well . Children should be moulded in a proper way so that they can make good use of their common sense. They should be taught good manners, and elders should be the one to put them in practice first. They should be a good example to their children and as well as their teachings.

Let us discuss one of the simple usage of common sense which is used in our everyday life.viz, Thank you, sorry, please and welcome are some of the magical words to mention. Why I called them magical is because of the fact that they can melt the heart and crack someone's anger and bring smile in people's faces. This should be put in practice from family to public space in an appropriate time.

We now understand what common sense is, it's relevance and it's importance in our lives and for the society. It must be understood that any lapse in it may not be a legal crime but it certainly will face moral judgement. In fact, it is a moral obligation to follow. Elders play a vital role to put them in practice. Family should be the first institution to be taught.

We must know that we can change our society. This is a part and role that anyone can perform well regardless of whether one is rich or poor, educated or uneducated, or young or old. If not well performed, we would be highly indebted to nature and life and most of all the divine.

Let us therefore help people realise the need to culture and nurture this sense which can mould and enhance the essence of life.

I hope and pray that we put them in practice, and bring about changes in our family and society, and make the world a better place to live in.