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Along Life’s Way
The Quest for
the Super Sense: A Fable
© 2018 Lois E. Wilson
His father said, “Son, it is time for me to give you the quest I was
given by my father when I was your age. We have been given a
‘super sense.’ Your task is to go out into the world and find it. Once
you do and use it well, your life will be better.”
The lad was puzzled, but he liked challenges. So he went forth. He
thought, “I know there are five senses. Perhaps the super sense is one
of them.” He began with the sense of sight. He interviewed doctors and
scientists. The doctors explained eye function, how vision can be
improved with spectacles. The scientists showed him instruments which
improve the ability to study minuscule items. They told him, “We gather
facts before we act and have limitations.”
Touch was a difficult sense to explore. He chose to speak to those in
the health care field as they work closely with therapy, treatment, and
recovery of individuals. Several stated, “Touch is important to the
health of patients. If conditions are optimum, healing occurs
more quickly.”
He talked to teachers and counselors knowing that they had to be good
listeners when they worked with students and clients. They said, “The
ears are only one sense organ. And what we hear and how we interpret it
depends on each individual’s situation.”
For the sense of taste, he chose to interview chefs. They emphasized,
“Taste is not absolute. It varies person to person based upon their
perceptions. Other senses such as sight and smell also influence
taste.”
He decided firefighters probably encounter various odors and therefore
would have a good sense of smell. They were eager to talk, “We
encounter something different all the time: wildfires, gasoline fires,
dryer lint, electrical, and arson. You name it; we’ve smelled them and
fought them. There is nothing like experience to make us more aware of
what we’re dealing with.”
He had heard of a sixth sense, extrasensory perception—ESP—a feeling
that comes from outside oneself. He wondered if it was the super sense.
He met with a seer and a gambler. But when he asked them their success
rate in predicting the future, they replied, “It’s about 50/50.” He
knew he could probably do that well himself.
He told his father, “I’ve explored all the senses I know. They are
affected by facts, conditions, situations, perceptions, experiences,
outside influences and limitations. Therefore, I do not believe there
is a super sense.” His father smiled and praised him, “Son, today you
proved to me that you’ve discovered the super sense. The super sense is
‘common sense’—after considering all the reasons you listed, you used
common sense for your conclusion. I’m proud of you.”
Moral: It is a thousand times better to have common sense without
education than to have education without common sense (Robert G.
Ingersoll). Common sense is scattered among the many; but sadly, not
all have any (Lois E. Wilson:“The Search.”)
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