Modern Art Decisions

One of the more difficult parts of our modern life is the immensity of choice we are faced with daily. Really we have constant decision overload. Decision making thus becomes one of the more essential human survival characteristics. Yet, it is largely ignored in our education. Nobody teaches us how to decide which brand of toothpaste to buy. Some people have no difficulty making these choices while others suffer daily. 

Jakob and I get by in this realm. It is true that I use up more of my life than is necessary making inconsequential decisions. I can be caught standing in the supermarket aisle staring helplessly at rows of identical but different looking jams. Sad but true. Luckily these are trivial decisions and don't prevent me from leading a happy and full life. Then there are the bigger decisions in life. Things like should we get married, what job should I choose, do I believe in an afterlife, what book should I read next, and where should we live. We are currently faced with lots of these difficult decisions. In a week and a half our accommodation runs out and we have nowhere to live. As we often do in this sort of situation we have discussed the options but otherwise delay any actual decision making and ignore it. If you can't decide what jam to eat just don't eat any jam. If you can't decide where to live just don't live anywhere. Simple logic that seems to be working so far. 

If anyone is reading this you are probably shedding tears at our approach. But you need not worry anymore. Just because trivial decisions are difficult and large decision are ignored does not mean we can't be decisive. We are very decisive when we need to be. For example, we knew from the second we entered this apartment that black paintings are not for us. 

Our apartment is comfortable. It has all the amenities of living we need, the beds are fluffy and white and comfortable, there is even a balcony. But. And this is important. Our lives are made duller by the amount of time we spend looking at black canvases. There are three of these huge dark creations. Each is identical but completely different. Sounds impossible but it isn't. Each is completely black but has one line of color. Sometimes the line of color is itself such a dark color that you can hardly notice it is there. At first we tried to see the positives: hand painted canvases, true modern art, unique. But when we wake every morning to blackness we know none of these things matter. But while they depress us daily they also boost our self esteem in two ways. We easily decided black modern art is not for us and now feel good about our decision making abilities. And we could make these paintings! All of us. Even our little Tova has the ability to be a great black modern artist. There is an empty hotel just waiting for our expertise and for thousands of guests to appreciate a red line Tova spilled on the canvas.
Things get even thicker and darker. Having seen inside a few rooms I know that every apartment in this complex has identical artwork. Who is this artist who makes hundreds of black paintings and never signs them? And who is this person who bought hundreds of these paintings? Maybe the choice of art was so overwhelming they panicked and said " just give me a hundred of that one" Or maybe it was the owner, on a tight budget, who made all the paintings to save money and black was on sale that day. I imagine a warehouse with hundreds of canvases leaned against a wall and one menacingly gleeful and giggly individual holding up a black paintbrush on the brink of happy dark efficiency. 

And so Aurora and I took it upon ourselves to investigate this dark mystery. Meaning we went down to the front desk and said "we are curious about the paintings." I am happy to report that every employee here shares our decision making expertise. They all detest the black paintings. I am even prouder that my make believe story was actually right. The decorator did make all the paintings themselves! To this day no one knows why she chose to make so many black canvases. What we do know is that sometimes humans are astonishingly good at deciding things. If you are ever in need of decision making self confidence just look at a black canvas. Meanwhile, the owner has recently purchased bright new paintings for all the rooms so if you want hundreds of black modern art I am sure you could get yourself a great deal.

Cute children to give you a sense of largeness of canvases

Most endearing of the three

Looks grey in the sunlight but is black black