When Choice is a Burden

On my to-read list is "The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less," by Barry Schwartz.

His argument is pretty much stated in the title of his book. More is less? How could it be? It sounds like heresy in our consumer-driven society. But I have to agree. In the bookstore I browsed the first few pages of the book, and Schwartz mentions dozens, even hundreds, of choices in the store. Mustards, cereals, shampoos, and more. Much, much more!

I can't help agree with the premise of the book. Sometimes more really does feel like less.

I admit I can browse the aisles of Target with abandon, fascinated by all the colors and selection on the shelves. A pretty purple shampoo bottle. Hmmm, it promises to 'tousle' my hair. Oh, and this green bottle promises to boost my hair's natural waviness. That blue bottle over there promises to fight frizz, and that pink one will fight frizz and add shine and it has some exotic root extract. I admit I find myself overwhelmed. The green bottle is on sale, but I like my hair tousled, but the exotic root extract is supposed to be good for my scalp. How to choose?

Then I settle on a favorite, and inevitably it goes out of production and I have to choose all over again (in between endless browsing in case there's some other magic bullet).

But it is too much sometimes. Instead of being home and getting more done, I'm distracted by all these pretty shiny things.

Buying clothing is a pain sometimes. I don't want to try on 20 pairs of jeans, but I want ones that diminish my belly. I want ones that make my short legs look longer. Sure I want the best possible pant for me, but sometimes it ends up feeling like a hollow victory.

At home I have way too much stuff. I have probably 30 to 35 lipsticks, and one pair of lips. I have a mega case of makeup I bought with Christmas cash, on sale for $15 so it's fabulous, naturally. But pair that with the five eyeshadow quads I already owned, the six single eye shadows, and the eight eyeliners, four mascaras, and couple that with the fact that there are only 365 days in the year and I have one pair of eyes, well, it does seem kind of silly.

And for shampoos. I have blonde shampoos, which cut the brassiness and lighten it gradually (one for each purpose, naturally). I have wave-enhancing shampoos, volumizing shampoos, herbal shampoos. And then I had to go and dye my hair brunette, so now I need a brunette shampoo and conditioner set, along with color-boosting glaze. And I had to buy dry shampoo for brunettes, because I don't even like to wash my hair more than two or three times a week to fight frizz, so it snowballs.

But damn if I'm not prepared.

And oddly, even though I have so much choice and so much to complain about, I'd probably complain if there were only three shampoos to choose from or if I only had blue and brown eye shadows to choose from.

Oh, the paradox of choice indeed.