Indecision

I'm standing in a supermarket aisle staring at a shelf of tissues. No biggie, just a box of tissues to replace the one I've almost finished. There are several considerations I have in my choice of tissues. But most importantly, I need a good balance between price and quality. Scanning the available selection, I spot a brand that looks promising. On further inspection there is another brand that is cheaper. Yes, that works. Wait...do I want a big box or a small one? Maybe just a small one. Putting the first option down, I side step a little further left till I'm faced with the smaller squarish boxes. Hmm, now to eliminate the most expensive and the cheapest. The budget tissues are a little rough on the nose and eyes. I spot a good brand at a reasonable price but they're all in kids designs. No. Then next to it, for just a few cents extra, plain boxes in muted colors. "Winner!" I think. Then, "Just take it, or you'll be here for the next year trying to decide what tissues to buy. They're just tissues, you know!!" I laugh at myself (in my head, of course, because I don't want to get odd stares from strangers). I exit the supermarket pleased with my few purchases but annoyed at my inability to make a swift and decisive decision about tissues. Tissues!!! Not a life-altering decision by any means. Yet I think it's just about the hardest thing my brain has had to process the whole day.

Choice is good. Variety is the spice of life, so they say. But too much of it can be overwhelming. Sometimes it's good it keep things simple. It's not necessary to complicate things that aren't complicated in the first place. Like tissues. So much choice meant that a very simple decision was made into an agonising internal debate. Had I been given two choices, it would have taken me 20 seconds rather than 10 mins, a fraction of the time! I suppose in a world of consumerism and blaring advertisements, it's inevitable that we are faced with variety that blow our minds. Yet we're told that it's normal and we should be able to cope with these small decisions that are part of our daily existence. Should it be normal?

Well, normal or not, I now have tissues to last until the next agonisingly indecisive moment I stand in front of a supermarket shelf. Unfortunately, they're not the only things I go into a supermarket for...