Rural Routes, Blog Version

I grieve for Common Sense. I fear it faces extinction.

Perhaps it is an age thing. I told my 20-year-old son the other day that I might be going through some middle-age ‘stuff’.

“Mom, do you really think you are going to live to 120?” he asked.

Cute.

The math is all wrong. I still have a few years yet till I hit 60.

But for a young man to say such a thing to his mother shows a certain lack of tact and, yes, common sense.

It is not surprising. My son has refused to wear winter boots since he was 15 and gloves are something he uses to pad his backpack. He passes through each Manitoba winter bareheaded and mittenless.

Several years ago I attended a week-long course in Winnipeg. It was mid-January and temperatures plus wind chill were bottoming out near the -50 degree mark.  As we arrived for class each morning, participants commiserated about cars that would not start, busses that ran late and taxis that took forever to arrive. One 60ish participant told us that he had noticed a young woman standing at a bus stop not far from his residence. She wore a dress and tights. Her jacket was open, she had no gloves and her feet were clad in ankle high fashion boots.

“I stopped and offered her a ride because she looked frozen, but she said no,” he told us.

We live in a nonsensical world. We don’t know how to dress for a Manitoba winter and we are afraid to accept the kindness of strangers.