in / common

In / common Common. A word that isn’t necessarily positive. Neither is it negative. Generally referring to something average. In abundance. Ordinary. An observation. To be a common person is to be poor or lowly. To have a common feature or name or eye colour is to be boring and uninteresting. If in a game you were to find something of a common value, the player wouldn’t feel anything, really. To be common is to be ignored. Dismissed. It seems then, that value is only truly rarity. To be rare is to be desired. To be desired is to be valueable. In placing a small word in front of this unimportant one then, why do we have a phrase that is used so often? This small word, that can be noun, preposition, adverb, adjective. Perhaps because, in combining the two, we have a term which allows two things to be connected, two strangers to feel familiar, two objects to relate. To have something in common with another person is the highest form of compliment. To share a link, a trait, a love, a pursuit. So how does adding this small word allow the meaning and, yes, value to completely change? Perhaps it comes down to humanity’s need to form relationships. To validate and be validated. To love and be loved. Because this term, until applied to multiple subjects, has no worth. For really, what is art without the viewer? What is music without the listener? What is literature without the reader? To know that you have something that many others also have is insignificant, but to know that you share something with another is powerful. To share a hair colour, hobby, religion, skin colour, home, interest; it brings more meaning to these things. For really, what is anything that we have, feel, or think without another to share it with.

by Ffion

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