Common sense apparently is not so common anymore. There are many examples that come to mind, among them are ones who have no place in this column. Now that is common sense. Lately there have been reports so unbelievable that they either have a complete lack of common sense, or a foolish disregard for it. These are the, ‘What in the world…’ reports coming out of Yellowstone National Park that is bordered by Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Within this area of roughly 3,472 sq. miles there are around 6,000 American Bison or as they are often erroneously called, Buffalo. There are no buffalo in Yellowstone. There are, however, 10,000 to 20,000 elk and deer, 124 Gray wolves, and about 127 beavers in the park. There are also approximately 45 to 100 cougars in the north end of the park and an impressive 737 grizzly bears. Out of all these wild animals, tourist from all over the world want most to see, not the wolf, the elk or even the bear and the beaver. They want to see, touch, have a selfie taken with and even feed a real American Bison! Why?! Too many ‘Dances with Wolves’ fans maybe? Tatanka!
Whatever the reason, the attraction to these beasts is uncanny, unstoppable and unrealistic. Over the past 6 months, at least four people who have reminded the rest of us why it is not such a good idea to approach one of these 2,000 plus pound animals. We know that the first guy wasn’t thinking, but what excuse do the other three have for doing the same thing that first guy did? Did they think, ‘Hey, maybe I can get on a bison’s good side, and everything will go right.’ The only problem with that line of reasoning is, no one bothered to tell the bison it’s okay to let the human get close.
The latest incident took place in June this year. An 83-year-old woman was visiting the park, and she saw a huge, fire snorting Tatanka headed her way. She ran of course you say. No! She did not. The woman who, undoubtedly has enough experience with life to know that you do not stand on the train tracks when the locomotive is headed your way. So why would she feel that the right thing to do was to watch this wild animal approaching her and reach out to touch it? Poor judgment is a symptom of a much larger problem. Common sense tells us that there is a bison’s side to the story. This lady had to be taught a lesson. So, the beast promptly leaned his head down and showed the 83-year-old what his horns were for. He showed her so well, that the woman sustained major injuries and was life flighted to the hospital. That’s one painful and expensive, ‘hey mister bison, how ya doing?’ moment.
Common Sense, defined by Webster, is a phrase that imputes the ability to judge and decide with reasonable accuracy another’s prudence and intelligence are a reach higher than the bar. So, is reaching out to touch a Bison reasonable. Or show common sense? A resounding, ‘No!’ comes to mind.
In today’s world we are seeing the same thread being pulled on over and over again. We are seeing the sweater begin to unravel and the wearer become unhinged. As we are told that certain things are okay by the people in our inner circles, that lies are truth from the media, and that up is down and down is up by society, people will follow, and they will do so even if it goes against their better judgment. How many times did you hear your mother say, ‘Well if Sammy jumped off a bridge would you?’ Usually when she was telling you that, she was using it to tell you that you couldn’t do something like go to a party and you argued, Sammy’s mom is letting him go. There was always one of two outcomes to that argument. Either you did not go to the party and you heard all about how fun it was the next day from your friends, or you snuck out that night, went to the party and when you got home, you found that the window you snuck out of was locked. Busted! The consequences? You were busy doing an endless list of chores, or worse, you were forced to suffer through your sister’s ballet lessons. Remember, this was not a onetime deal, you had to do these chores, rinse and repeat for a month straight.
Common sense is one of those things that you either have, or you just don’t. You can teach yourself some of it, you can certainly learn a lot of it from your mistakes, but if you want inherent common sense you have to look inside yourself and then look around you and say, ‘Ah come on! Heck no, touch a bison? In don’t think so!’
