Trying to make sense

“The word sense covers a wide range of content; the sensory, the sensational, the sensitive, the sensible and the sentimental, along with the sensuous.”- this is something I quote from John Dewey- read about aesthetics and art- quite sometimes ago! But I admire how all the philosophers see things and are able to put their thoughts into beautiful words and sentences when I struggle to think of a metaphor to describe my mother- everything beautiful about her- yet no word can describe her!

Talking and thinking of making sense of things is another aspect that more often, failed to make sense to me. Why do we need to rationalize things, why do we need to see the logic of everything, why do we go all out just to find answers to satisfy our minds. Because we are curious beings. Because…. We are not easily contented with just knowing, we want to know all the details as to when, how and why after the who and the what is answered!

But then not everything that happen in our lives, can be explained and come to term with what we believe as the common sense. Common sense is used to explain the general acceptance of conditions such as danger, pleasure, opportunity, bla….bla (actually difficult to think of other things). Everyone should know that if you cant swim but still you jump into a river (of course it must be deep) you are actually commiting suicide (of course without any life saving apparatus or someone there to save you). That is common sense. Under normal circumstances, your family will have to wait by the river side while the ‘they’ search for your body or for you to afloat….Then you’ll be buried. That is the prediction of one with common sense, I guess.

But there are other circumstances where common sense does not give us that satisfaction of correct prediction. I remember reading a story, a long time ago, about a man who was announced and confirmed dead by the doctor and was buried but he somehow got himself out of the grave and returned home (NO! He was not a zombie!). Then there were other cases but luckily they were not yet buried and then doctors and scientist discovered a new kind of illness where the heart can stop but the brain still work. That is why today, unless your brain died you will remain alive although people can poke spears onto your body without you realizing!

Making no sense? Neither am I. The point is, why must we try to make sense of everything that happened to us? We will end up thinking of all the kindness we did, the sacrifice we made, the money we spent, bla…bla and end up miserable. Why not use our sensory to appreciate life, the little time we have, be sensitive to the suffering of others instead of our own, be sensible making judgement of others, keep all the positive encounters in life as our sentimental belongings, and be a sensationally wise person who thinks of challenges and obstacles as sensuous elements that make us better and more mature!

Am I making sense now?