Few know the pain of my every day life due to one simple thing – I bite my tongue on a regular basis (metaphorically that is).  I have this deep-seated aversion to those fellow human beings that use no common sense whatsoever.  It disturbs me.  Greatly.

I once had a brother-in-law who was a veritable genius.  I’m not kidding in any way.  His intellect went far above anyone else in my family.  Often, he would sputter on about theoretical concepts that no one, and I mean absolutely no one, in my family had any clue about.  It was like listening to some foreign gibberish that one could never hope to understand.  Like he had some secret message that could only be explained in a cryptic language understood by only those gifted.

I was in awe of his knowledge base.

The problem was that he didn’t have a lick of common sense.  For instance, he thought that no matter his illness, whether that be a bacterial infection or a virus, the cure all was antibiotics.  Since he was quite the hypochondriac, he was in a perpetual state of antibiotic medication, yet he was always sick with a cold or the flu.  Another example is he couldn’t figure out why his car would just suddenly stop.  Like the engine would just sputter and turn off.  Each time, one of us would have to tell him to put gas in his tank or he would run out of gas.  It was almost as if he never made the connection between an empty gas tank that the car’s inability to function without it.

In instances like these, whether it be a relative of mine or a stranger showcased on the news, I bite my tongue.  Seriously, what’s your problem?  No, you shouldn’t try to cross an interstate highway during rush hour on foot (yes, I’ve seen that happen in San Antonio and the outcome is not pretty).

I find that I run into instances like these (maybe not so dramatic) that cause me to stop and wonder how the hell that person can survive their own stupidity.  In these moments, I force my thoughts down, and keep them tucked safely away from my vocal chords so that my sarcasm doesn’t slip out accidentally.  Everyone has sporadic moments of being scatter-brained, but some have them so frequently, I assume it’s simply a way of life for them.

I try to be kind, which is why I gnaw on my own tongue to prevent my inner meanness from coming out.  If I verbalized my every thought, I wouldn’t be liked all that much.