I believe my current gripe can be
appreciated by all- rural or urban, young or old, male or female. I
recently had the chore of picking out a paint color for our living room.
At first I didn't think it was a chore at all, more of a privilege. I
was very eager to rid the room of its bright yellow color. Then, I went
to the paint store. Then, I went again, and again. At the end of the
process I had at least five of those small paint samples and probably two
hundred paper swatches. There are so many different colors. Then you go
to a different store and there are more. My brain basically exploded.
Not to mention that everyone who enters the house has a different
opinion on what color the room should be. Finally I just went to the
store and said, "give me two gallons of antique leather in eggshell." It
was probably the most freeing statement I've said this year.
 |
| Introducing Antique Leather |
The
whole situation got me thinking- can you buy anything without having at
least five different choices? Salt? Nope. Garbage bags? Nope. Not even
water (spring, distilled, purified, electrolyte-enhanced, sparkling,
flavored...). This is quite the conundrum for me: the world's worst
decision maker. It's not all bad, sometimes I really like having the
vast variety our world offers us. For instance, last week I found a ghee
(aka clarified butter, which no longer contains casein)
that was made from the milk of grass-fed cows that had only been milked
in the spring and fall for the best quality product. Then you were able
to choose from five different flavors. I am not sure it gets more
specialty than that and I was excited about it. But sometimes you just
want to go to the store and buy some salt. Then you start to get
nostalgic for the general store like on Little House on the Prairie,
"I'd like a pound of sugar and a pound of flour." Period. End of
sentence. Luckily, the modern day equivalent, Kwik Trip, is only two
miles down the road. I was able to go there last week to buy my salt and
there was only one choice.
