As I sometimes say to Humpty, Mother wit – aka common sense and keeping your feet on the ground – is one of nature’s priceless assets. It has saved the situation when a reckless disregard of safety or an infatuation with untested theory has bid fair to upset the apple-cart.
Humpty is a bit sensitive about this. He knows it was recklessness that led to his fall. He also knows it was a costly event to have all those royal employees come to his aid. He has strong views about a common sense approach to health and safety.
If you ask him, he will tell you that it was mother wit in the shape of the Locomotive Act of 1865 that required a man with a red flag to precede the first automobiles in the UK. It was mother wit that repealed the act in 1896. As far as the rule of the road is concerned, mother wit persuaded Sweden in 1967 to switch from LHT (left hand traffic) to RHT to conform to a prevailing European pattern. Perhaps one day the same will happen to us. LHT is in a minority worldwide. Meanwhile we LHT people have to have our wits about us.
It is not surprising then that mother wit makes its appearance in Jesus’ teaching. Talking about discipleship, Jesus cited the case of a man about to build a tower. “Would any of you think of building a tower without first sitting down and calculating the cost, to see whether he could afford to finish it?” Obviously if he went ahead without thinking it through, he would find people laughing at him. Jesus was clearly encouraging his hearers to use their native wit, their common sense.
Yet sometimes Jesus’ teaching defies common sense. We are circumspect about putting it into practice. We all take thought for the morrow. We all save, insure and recycle. We very rarely come across somebody who has cut off his right hand. But it remains true that we tempt providence when we fail to give mother wit its due place. Without mother wit we are on dangerous ground when we read the Bible.
At this point I noticed that Humpty was getting out his chain-saw. He was also putting on his hard hat and goggles. He noticed me and gave me a wink. ‘You’re not catching me out,’ he seemed to say. I kept my mouth shut. You only have to fall off a wall once to make you wary about health and safety. You could almost say Humpty is in love with mother wit. Good for him. We should all be.
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