A sister recently visited from Minnesota and she noticed how the street bumps – at least we’d called them ”bumps” for years when we were growing up – now seemed to be called, “humps.”  We laughed over how things change. 

When I told this to my husband, he asked if I’d noticed there are two different kinds of speed reducing payment grades.  I thought about it and realized I had.  There was the really steep ones I’d seen on public streets and around buildings, such as the post office, and then there were ones I’d seen which were slightly shallower and smoother on top around my neighborhood. 

So in fact, there are both humps and bumps.

This difference I’d missed got me to thinking about the assumptions we often make in life and how easy it is to speed by subtle differences, nuances, distinctions and so forth.  My sister and I automatically made the assumption that the street bumps were now called humps because they looked similar and served the same purpose.  Then we discovered they aren’t the same and have a slightly different purpose.  Street bumps are used in higher, often tighter traffic areas and are steeper to be a real wake up call if you take them at a fast speed.  The message being a more pronounced, “Danger.  Slow down!”

How often do you assume you already know something before taking a closer look?  Do you sometimes take actions that you have to undue because you missed a few things?  I’m sure you’ve had the experience of finding out after spending a lot of time doing something one way that there was a simpler way you could have done it that didn’t occur to you.  But then you never stopped to consider it, or ask anyone, you just assumed you knew and took action.

Try stopping and giving it a little thought the next time you find yourself thinking “Oh, I know this - this is the way.”  You may be surprised to discover you have something you could learn about it.