I’m Fixing to Use Some Good Old Fashioned Horse Sense

I’m fixing to use some good old fashioned horse sense.

Or maybe it’s common sense that I’m fixing to use. I asked my Cousin Elroy what he thought the difference was in horse sense and common sense. He answered my question with a question by wanting to know what my definition of common sense was?

I pretty much knew what common sense was so I proceeded to tell him that it was sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation of facts, and equated to the knowledge and experience which most people already have, or which the person using the term believes that they do or should have, and was the basic level of practical knowledge and judgement that we all need to help us live in a reasonable and safe way.

“Is that all?” Elroy wanted to know. “If you had some kind of example of somebody using common sense in a situation of some sort then I could probably do a better job of deciphering the difference between it and horse sense.”

“You mean like a story of somebody using common sense for a good and useful purpose?”

“Uh huh, if you did that I might be able to come up with a good comparison between common sense and horse sense.”

“Well,” I began, “did you know that common sense was used in the founding of our nation?”

“How’s that?” Elroy asked.

So I proceeded to tell him the story of how the Patriot Thomas Paine had used common sense in 1776 to present to the American colonists an argument for freedom from British rule at a time when the question of seeking independence was still undecided, by publishing a 48 page pamphlet structured as if it were a sermon, and relied on Biblical references to make his case to the people.

The pamphlet was titled Common Sense and sold over a half million copies in both America and Europe, an extraordinary number for the times. Mr. Paine donated his royalties to George Washington’s Continental Army. “So you see, Elroy,” I concluded, “common sense was instrumental in the founding of our great country!”

I could tell by the look on Elroy’s face that all the information I had related to him on common sense had enlightened him to the level that he was ready to reveal to the world what the difference was between common sense and horse sense.

“I think I got it,” he said.

“Well?”

“Horse sense is a great deal more simple than common sense.”

Now I found myself in his former position and asked if he could give me an example of that?

He proceeded to do so by saying, “If it starts to rain outside and the barn door is open the horse will be fixing to go inside.”