Thursday, March 7, 2013

Jelly Beans and Other Modern Choices

I have always loved candy.  I can remember walking with my brother up to the little restaurant up the street in IL and buying a sack full of penny candies.  I just purchased my favorite candy bar, a British Mars bar, yesterday at 50% off and it still cost me 90 cents.  My wife told me I would have spent $2.50 on it.  I said she was wrong, but she was really probably right.  They are very hard to find in the U.S.  Anyway . . .

Jelly beans were always a big Easter hit with my brother and me.  I can remember the egg shaped things that were hard on the outside with a marshmallow-like inside, milk flavored bunnies, and Cadbury creme eggs.  Back to jelly beans.  As I recall, there were only a few flavors (or colors): white, pink, black, green, purple, and sometimes orange.  Life was simple back then.  Only so many options, and you could tell what you were getting when you picked one.

I have a "Jelly Belly" dispenser on my desk filled with wonderfully delicious jelly beans.  The flavors range from peanut butter to lime to strawberry dacquiri to buttered popcorn.  You have to have a visual guide to help you find what you want.  Even then it is very easy to be mistaken about what you are about to eat.  Coffee and lime are just weird together.

While the ability to experience a peanut butter sandwich (1 grape and 1 peanut butter jelly bean) or caramel corn (1 buttered popcorn and 1 caramel jelly bean) is pretty amazing, most people just get frozen when it comes to making a choice.  The options are endless.  You can almost have any taste experience you would like.  No limitations here.  Try it all.

The expansion of the jelly bean universe offers some insight into our modern culture. 

While we may be able to find the perfect combination of beans to create our taste fantasy, we usually have to rummage through a whole dispenser worth of beans in order to get there.  This experience has also taught us that we should be able to do that in every arena of our lives.  More choices, good; fewer options, bad.

Choices aren't all they are cracked up to be.  At 46, I prefer fewer options and less mental anguish.  Do I really need thousands of options for my taste experience?  Am I less satisfied with a few colors in the Easter basket?  Is my life less fulfilled with less to decide?

When I was a youth minister and my kids had an event that needed pop, I would get two varieties, dark and clear.  That was it.  When we ordered pizza, it was either pepperoni or cheese.  Two options.  No more, no less.  Amazingly we all survived.  There was the occasional question about Mountain Dew or root beer, but honestly the limited choices made life simpler for everyone.  The focus was on what we had, not what we wanted.

Our culture has desire down pat.  We are taught from a young age to have discriminating tastes.  We are pressed to go for what we want.  We are told we can "have it your way."  Options are seen as a sign of blessing.  Does anyone remember when coffee came in more brands than flavors?  Do I need 262,144 choices of sauce and veggie combinations at Subway?  That doesn't include sandwich types, bread varieties, or getting it toasted.  Certainly the madness is obvious.

Why do we assume that more choices are a better way to do life?  Where does this assumption originate?  Is life less glorious with fewer choices?  Perhaps less is more.  Maybe I can survive on 5 types of jelly beans.

Simplicity Lost.  Maybe that will be the title of my next book. 

Where did I put that Mars bar?