I subscribe to a daily meditation written by Father Richard Rohr. a Franciscan priest.I talk and write about the concept of common sense, which I understand as local and global. Father Rohr cast it from a theological perspective, I think the explanation provides an insight gained without reading Gadamer’s Truth and Method. I believe there is a universal truth or common sense (Vico called this sensus communis), something that makes us all brothers and sisters bringing us together in community. I think Father Rohr offers an explanation though his meditation on Father’s Day helping us to live in community each day. Certainly, Rilke does.
“It is this sense that founds community” (Gadamer, 1989, p. 19).
Gadamer, H-G. (1989). Truth and method. (J. Weinsheimer & D. G. Marshall, Trans.). New York: Continuum.
Catch only what you’ve thrown yourself, all is
mere skill and little gain;
but when you’re suddenly the catcher of a ball
thrown by an eternal partner
with accurate and measured swing
towards you, to your center, in an arch
from the great bridgebuilding of God;
why catching then becomes a power–
not yours, a world’s.
–Rainier Maria Rilke
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 