Is being “common” good?

The term Common originated in feudal England that refers to a group of people or tenants who occupy and cultivate a lord’s land that is considered as “waste”. In Medieval literature, commoners are one of three estates. The General Prologue, from the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, explores "the Medieval social theory that society was made up of three 'estates'". The Nobility were a "small hereditary aristocracy, whose mission on earth was to rule over and defend the body politic". The Church had the responsibility of "looking after the spiritual welfare of that body". Commoners "were supposed to do that work that provided for its physical needs". The social status was a division of different class and their places and occupations in Medieval society. Free Dictionary.com, gives the following definitions respectively:

com•mon•er
n.
1. One of the common people.
2. A person without noble rank or title.

commoner
n
1. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a person who does not belong to the nobility.

A commoner is a person who holds no title, a member of the middle class, a person of no influence, the ordinary person, a hypothetical average man, a member of the working class (not necessarily employed); "workers of the world--unite!"

That is where “community” got its concept from. Community is a group of people united by a common something. In other words they are a group of “common people”. Examples of commoners in Papua New Guinean society would be of the working class persons, the high school drop outs roaming the streets and/or whatever status circumstances places you in society. Whether you are a lawyer, doctor, accountant, human resource manager, businessman, news editor, TV presenter, Artist, Musician, a driver or a tea-boy or a student, etc, you are all the same. You are a commoner; there is nothing different about you because of your profession or status because at the end of the day you all work and contribute toward the running of a governmental system.

Now by me saying that being common is boring might be a bit of an over statement but as a matter of fact it isn’t. There is nothing at all interesting about being common. Papua New Guinea has a lot of common people doing common things and aren’t getting anywhere. They are all stuck in their every day frustrations of trying to meet this and that and every other cares and worries in this complex 21st century lifestyle. The world is full of common babies being born into a common family who are raised up in a common culture, get a common education and end up in a common job with a common salary, accidentally falls into a common relationship and have a common wedding, have common babies and live a common life with other people of common beliefs and interests and then dies a common death and gets buried in a common grave among the common dead. How commonly boring can the world get?

And if we are to be a great nation, than being common surely is taking the road of mediocrity down the forgotten abyss of triviality. If you want to be great, deliver yourself from being a “commoner” and begin to express your uniqueness; your truest nature, find your gift and talent, develop it and be a servant to the masses; be an agent of change; be an agent for greatness. Dr Myles Munroe would always say that “you were not born to keep the mortgage going or to pay the rent or live to make a living. What a Lousy life you live…! You were born to make a difference.” Something great begins to happen when a commoner begins to discover his/her unique purpose. There is nothing more powerful than a commoner with a sense of purpose. Finding his/her purpose he/she sets out on a journey of separation from the common masses to the place of his/her unique greatness whereupon after serving the world he/she is able to live behind a set of footprints, a legacy, not as a commoner but as one of the greats that ever walked this earth.

Remember to always dare think different!!

The following inspirational video has a great message for you to think about.