wisdom, common sense and things of ilk

As I was ruminating on the title of the blog I was tempted to name it little provocatively. With years spent in the business of managing people and things, the realisation has come that there is a certain resistance to accept new things, new ideas. It needs a mental equivalent of rap on the knuckles to break the minds reverie and accept the reality. Hence the name.
However I have often been amazed at how seemingly complex problems that are felt/faced by people are solved using minimum effort and lot of common sense. I once remember seeing a farmer using a simple plastic water bottle at the end of hose pipe to give the effect of a sprinkler by making holes around the body of the bottle. In the process I guess he saved himself a few rupees and lot of time. I promptly took a picture to use it in my sessions.
It is not for nothing that dadima's nuskhe score over modern medicine when it comes to normal illnesses plaguing kids.
All this leaves me wondering is there a pattern to the way some people use their mind. How is it that they always get the compliment that they are more creative, wise and common sensical while the people with more erudite education, global exposure and all sophistication seem to be grappling with problems unable to solve it.
While it is tempting to come up with lot of answers I think few of the reasons listed below explain the presence of so called common sense and wisdom in few people:
1) Childhood Experiences - I have seen people who have had the luxury of un encumbered(without any boundations) childhood. I mean they were no real strings when they were children . Which meant that they did as they liked, naturally started exploring things on their own rather than somebody(usually a parent) explaining things to them, and also started using the method of learning by doing almost by default. In most cases this carefree childhood was forced on them due to some family circumstances and they initially probably didnt like it too much. There is a world of a difference when you are handed down an explaination by a conditioned mind of a parent and a child exploring things on its own. Such a child naturally starts using his own interpretations more than being dependent on others. Hence there is a good chance that they become original thinkers as they go along thier life's journey.
2) Deeply curious nature-Many times some people have a more curious nature than others which leads them to not be satisfied with any answers they get. Hence it is natural that for any situation/problem/issue in life they will keep searching until they get all the answers. While this search process is a life long process what it does to vast majority of people who embark on such a search is that within a few committed years of search for answers they start getting answers. Most of the times the answers are natural and are rooted in fundamental principles of universe and hence look loaded with wisdom and common sense.
It is noteworthy that both of the above reasons had nothing to do with our schooling,college education or even the work we do. It has more to do with issues like where we were born, what happened to us early on in childhood , what particularly typical situations did we face early on in life that formed our worldview, how we learnt to be happy, our choices that shaped us and how we allowed our choices to effect us and so on and on....

So does it mean that wisdom/common sense is something that happens by chance....
NO..on the contrary it is something that happens by choice. If an individual is commited to truth, to know, to learn and to be joyous,to contribute,to share he/she will perforce be gaining wisdom in whatever he/she does. Because the above requires higher order feelings which automatically drives people to be leaders. Once they realise the responsibility of leadership the light of wisdom starts burning inside them and it never fades away. The leadership need not be of a big corporation, or a nation or society. It can be as small as a family or a neighbourhood. Leadership is leadership......context may change...content remains the same....

looks like I have got the theme for next posting...
cheers
vir