sensible

So. I tend to spend a lot of time thinking about words. And I spend a lot of time cleaning up after other people. The first one I like. The second one, not so much. But I try to teach my kids (and my husband) to leave every place a little better than they found it. In fact, that's what the chalkboard sign in my bathroom says, and has said, for the last several weeks. I used to change the message each weekend, but when I got to that one and really started to think about the importance of that mandate and the over-reaching implications for the world, I decided it could stay a little longer. What if we all left each place we went - the bathroom and kitchen at home; the gas station with a napkin on the ground beside the trashcan; the classroom with a broken pencil on the floor; the church with an old bulletin stuck in a hymnal; the doctor's office with a plant that needs yellowing leaves picked off; the office lounge with the soda cans, plastic bottles, and waste paper that really should be in a recycling container instead of the trash can; the grocery store with a serious and detrimental grammatical error on a store-made sign posted at the entrance to each check-out line - all of these situations could be improved by a few seconds of effort. And then what if many people who are in these same places gave some of their seconds - what a huge difference we could make!

I digress.

While I was speed-cleaning the bathroom and thinking how holy I was in making this place a little better than I found it (when in reality I was leaving it MUCH better than I found it), I noticed that on the baby wipes package that the sensitive wipes, in another language, were sensible wipes. That stopped me dead in my tracks. To be sensitive is to be sensible. How profound. To be aware of the situations and conditions of others. To be concerned about what would or could happen based on our actions (or inactions).  Generally calling someone sensible is a compliment and calling someone sensitive has the sound of calling someone weak or emotional. I've enjoyed thinking of these being the same. How sensible.

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