Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-12-05
Just why is choice so dtfficultP

Just why Is choice so difficult?
Especially Is the task of right selec-
ton in the smaller affairs of life hard
for many.
To choose properly between two
courses Of action, in some major crisis
is no way near so difficult for some of
us as to make a selection between two
kinds of soup at lunch, or among four
differently colored ties, lamps or what
not.
This is mock tragedy Of the every
day which never seems to have been
given the consideration it deserves.
There have been, of course, various
explanations based on psychoanalysis,
but the common sense of most human
beings all along rightly put such hocum
in the place it belonged.
Learned looking boards and scientific
sounding words do not always carry
modern society, which is in flux to
more than the ordinary degree.
Today people want more than words
in explanation. They want. truly. the
explanation itself; If words must be
used, they are to be so arranged that
they tell something, not just look pretty
or sound difficult.
Why is it hard for some people to
select the color they want from several
colors?
Our guess that it is sort of selfish
ness in their character, at bottom,
rather than any psychic hesitancy.
They cannot come to decision be-
cause they want them all, not just one,
and, knowing they ought not to get
more than one, dilly-dally over the
choice as long as they can.
Like all bad habits, this one grows
on them, so that in time they come to
the point where they never can make a
quick decision about anything.
The sad part Of this business is that
they are never satisfied with their Sc
lection after they have made it.
If the time consumed were all that
were lost by such dilatory selection 1t
would be bad enough, but there is the
genuine dissatisfaction which so often
ensueS.
If one could just be satisfied, having
finally come to decision!
But every one who is afflicted with
this trait knows very well that no
matter which one of several, in any
line, he chooses, the ones he did rot
accept loom afterward as the most de-
sirable.
Especially when choice must be
made among artistic creations of mind
ana nand does the neSlCanC person IlnQ
his woes piled upon him.
Sometimes he comes to believe that
artistic leanings. and appropriations. are
in a sense a sort of curse, in that the
desires they make are SO many and the
means of satisfaction often too few,
since usually there is no relation be-
tween the two at all.
Too much appreciation of beautiful
things-this is one facet of this STUN
bling-block. One possesses a sort of
divine piggishness, in that one wants
all the beauty there is, whether it be
manifested in books, flowers, jewels,
dogs, cats, old furniture, Persian rugs
or whatnot.
Therefore the choice becomes diff
cult, when one is faced with plethora,
and has a Strengthened pocketbook, or
the inability to loosen up" which
amounts to the same thing.
Indecision is not such bad trait Of
character. after all. in such case.
1t simply may indicate, not a lack of
character, but lack of greenbacks; not
something vital missing in the back
bone, but something essential in the
purse.
If one is in hurry, over such mat
tiers, and at the same time has no real
taste, he will find it no task at all to
make a selection. Often such a per-
son gets credit for genuine ability,